The World Begins With You
by guyinblack
Summary: Takes place 6 months after TWEWY. Neku and his new friends have been living a normal life until an event brings them to play the 'Angel's game'. Neku/Shiki.
1. A new beginning

Hi, name's guyinblack and this will officially be my second story. The main reason I'm writing this story is because I just finished TWEWY a day ago and I'm…not really satisfied. What I mean is that the whole story (which I really enjoyed) was too short and I don't really want to say goodbye to it just yet.

Well, I hope you enjoy this story and please don't forget to review after k?

The World Begins With You

Chapter 1: A New beginning

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(Neku's POV)

A lot's changed in this Shibuya and this Shibuya's changed a lot of people. It's a little embarrassing to say this but I was one of those people. I used to be a total ass to others and just shoved them away like yesterday's garbage. I didn't really give a damn about people and the only one I actually cared about was myself.

But…a few months ago I entered this "game". Hmph…like it could even be called a game. Anyway, this game…really changed how I looked at people. I started seeing the good in others and what certain things make their relationships with each other grow. During the game, I was partnered up with 3 different people. Shiki Misaki, Daisukenojo (he hates that name) Bito, and the composer himself, Joshua.

These three helped me look for what I was missing in myself. They helped me grow and I guess I helped them grow too. I owe a lot to them. I know I'm still not the best person right now and I'm still getting used to this new lifestyle but hey, I think I'm making some progress.

There's still one thing that's still bugging me though; just how did the whole game thing start or…just how did reapers, noise, or the composer come to be? There's just too many things I don't get but…for now I'll leave that behind me.

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(Normal POV)

6 months have passed since the reaper's game. Neku and his new friends have been spending a normal teenage life like all teenagers should. Going to school, hanging out, and other stuff. Right now, nothing seemed to trouble the group. Well, nothing right now at least…

"Damnit, I'm gonna be late!" A running Neku said irritatingly as he checked the time on his phone. For some reason, he'd overslept and was now trying his best to reach Shibuya high school before the front gates would close on him. After a couple of minutes, he could see a school and 4 people standing by the school gates: Shiki Misaki, Eri Nanami, and Beat and Rhyme Bito.

"Neku! Over here!" A smiling Shiki yelled as she waved her hand. The whole group had changed their clothing ever since the reaper's game, mostly because it was already nearing winter. Neku was now wearing a blue unzipped jacket with rolled up sleeves up to his elbows, a black shirt under the jacket. His shorts and shoes were almost alike except that his shorts were a bit longer and they were blue and black instead of white. The most notable change is that his headphones were now around his neck instead of actually wearing them.

Beat and Rhyme had the least changes. Beat had a white cotton vest now on top of his white skull jersey and had a long black sleeve on his right arm. Rhyme no longer has the skull cap on her head but her clothes were still…kind of unisex.

Eri was no longer wearing her cap but had a small hairpin in the shape of a yellow star. She had black leggings that reached a little above her knees and her red shirt now covered her stomach because she didn't want to freeze to death in the cold temperature. Actually, the one wearing the cap was Shiki now. She grew her brown hair slightly longer during those six months and it reached down to the bottom of her neck now. She wore a green short sleeved shirt, short pink skirt and light brown boots. She had pink bracelets on each wrist and had a hair clip in the shape of a small star.

"Book it, man! We gonna be late, yo!" Beat urgently said so the group took off once again. Halfway through, Rhyme split up with the group because her classroom was in a different part of the building. After a few more seconds of sprinting, Neku and co. finally arrived at their classroom although Neku was now all out of breath from running too much.

"We…we made it…so…tired," Neku looked like a living zombie right now which made Eri take a guess on the cause. "You forgot to set your alarm again didn't you, Neku?" The girl questioned, making Neku droop on his seat "I…don't wanna talk about it…" The tired boy said as he continued to breath deeply for a couple of minutes.

"Anyway, why'd you guys wait up? We actually could've been late," Neku asked curiously as the group took their seats. "Oh come on, you're our friend. We won't leave you behind just like that," Shiki said with a smile, making Beat back up what she had just said in his own words "That's right, yo! We got your back"

"_Idiots,"_ Neku thought although the smile on his face contradicted that statement. In a few minutes, class started and as usual, Beat was fighting to stay awake during the lectures. The only thing actually keeping him awake was the frequent nagging of the teacher whose method of waking him up was a quick smack of a ruler to his head.

A few hours later, classes finally ended and the group was now in a café called wildkat which was also the residence of the one person who had greatly helped them during the reaper's game. The only thing that's changed in the cafe' is that Sanae Hanekoma was no longer the person in charge.

"It doesn't feel the same…without Mr. H…" Neku muttered as he looked around the café. Beat did the same for a moment then sighed, "I know whattchu mean. Mr. H just made this place have a whole different vibe, yo…" The skull cap teen said as he remembered all the times when Hanekoma had helped him through the game, especially when he lost his precious sister.

"Oh yeah, you told me about him and how he helped you in that reaper's game" Eri began "You know…it's still kinda hard to believe all that stuff about reapers, noise, and…Mr. Mew actually moving…?" Eri stared at the ever silent Mr. Mew hanging from Shiki's bag. Shiki was a bit sad that she couldn't see her stuffed cat move by itself, but it was much better than having to go through 3 weeks of hell "Well, we came back to life didn't we? Isn't that supernatural enough to make you believe?" Shiki replied with a smile, making her pink haired friend smile as well.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," She replied with a chuckle right before she suddenly remembered something. "Oh guess what? They're having a 50% discount down at 104 AND they just got a fresh new stock!" The red head said excitedly. "Really!? We just HAVE to get over there then!" Shiki replied and the two girls let out an excited squeal.

"Not this again…" Neku mumbled with a frown and Beat reciprocated "I feel your pain, man…" He said right before his little sister interrupted. "Oh, count me in too!" She chuckled, surprising the two boys especially her big brother "Whaaaa? Not you too Rhyme!?"

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It was now evening in Shibuya and the group was now in ten-four. The girls were happily enjoying their shopping while the guys were…pretty much just being dragged around. "Hey Neku, which looks shirt looks better?" Shiki cheerfully asked and Neku sighed. "…How the hell should I know? You're asking the wrong person…"

Seeing that Neku wasn't really going to be of much help, Shiki looked around, hoping to find Eri who was right now, the best person to ask "Well, I'm not sure where Eri went so- oh, speak of the devil. Hey, Eri!" Shiki called out as she ran to where the two other girls were.

Now that the girls were finally out of his hair, Neku looked for the nearest exit and finally spotted it a corner "Dude, I say we split right now," Neku quickly suggested and Beat quickly agreed to that offer "Good call, yo. Let's bounce," And the two quickly sped off for the exit and headed to the newly made Sotara Burgers.

At the restaurant, Neku looked around him, hoping that he could finally spend some time with a person who was of the same gender "Hey, the food here's not bad," Neku commented as he took a sip from his soda. Just as Beat was about to take a bite from his sandwich, a thought suddenly passed his mind and decided to ask about it.

"Yo, Neku. You ever wonder what happened to that prissy kid and Mr.H?" The blonde asked curiously. "You mean Joshua? I dunno really. After we came back from the game, I never saw him again," Neku explained, a frown present on his face which Beat quickly caught sight of "You still mad at him, yo?"

Hearing that question, Neku started twirling his straw around and swayed his eyes, as if trying to not give it much thought "I'm not sure…but I trust him anyway. 'Trust your partner' huh? That's one saying I won't be forgetting anytime soon. Geez, who knew that idiot was actually the composer,"

After a few more minutes of plain chat, Beat left Neku to make a quick stop to the bathroom. During that time, Neku decided to reflect more on what happened during the reaper's game. Everything that happened during that game seemed like it had just happened yesterday and all those events were still fresh in his mind. "_There's still so much I don't get"_ He thought as he rested his hand on his forehead.

After a minute of deep reflection, he was immediately drawn out of his chain of thought when he suddenly heard a loud crashing noise near the shopping area.

"What the hell!?" He said as he got up from his seat and traced the direction of the sound. "_Damn…Shiki and the others are still there! Tch…there's no time to wait up for Beat. I'm sure he'll catch up," _Neku thought as he sped off for the shopping area.

Neku was now nearing the clothing isle when he made a quick turn at a corner and accidentally bumped into Shiki, hitting his forehead with hers.

"Oww…that hurt- huh, Neku?" She said weakly as she rubbed her forehead, finally realizing who it was in front of her. Neku was also doing the same with his forehead when he finally remembered his current objective.

"Oh right, where are the others? Are they still inside this place?" Neku asked Shiki who swayed her head. "I'm not sure. I split up from them awhile ago and I don't know where they went. We need to find them right away though. That sound awhile ago didn't sound friendly"

Neku and Shiki proceeded to search around the area and eventually came across an isle that was so messed up it looked like a hurricane had hit it. Inside that isle were also a few familiar beings which the two immediately recognized. "Neku…is that what I…think it is?" Shiki asked with a fearful look on her face.

The strange objects in front of them were frog-like with a graffiti pattern across their backs. Just the sight of them made Neku think of doing one thing and one thing only. "We gotta run, now!" He immediately shouted as he grabbed Shiki's wrist and sprinted out of the area with the frog's chasing after them.

As they continued running, more frog noise were alerted and they eventually managed to corner the two due to the amount of noise already persuading them.

"Tch…we're surrounded…" Neku mumbled as he signalled Shiki to get behind him. The frogs drew in closer and closer until they were finally in range for an attack. Finally, a few frogs jumped at them making the two close their eyes and hopelessly try to defend themselves.

Eyes still closed, Neku and Shiki both heard a loud noise but they apparently didn't feel anything. With a small hope, they slowly opened their eyes, wishing that whoever did that was on their side.

The two opened their eyes to see a human figure that now stood in front of them. It was a person dressed mostly in black and had a dark skin tone. "Hey there. Did you little hectopascals miss me?" The man said before turning around and revealing himself. "P-Pi face?" Neku mumbled in surprise as the stranger looked at them with a smirk. It was Sho Minamimoto A.K.A the guy who tried to take over Joshua's position as composer.

The frogs leaped towards the man in black who immediately disposed of them with a few quick swipes of his hands. "Heh, these stupid radians can't do a thing to me!" Sho said confidently as he summoned taboo noise to fend off the rest of the noise. "Huh? Noise fighting noise?" Shiki blurted out as she observed the situation.

"A 000 like you couldn't possibly get it but I'll tell you anyway. These noise over here are my pets and they'll do anything I command them to do. Pretty zetta convenient huh?"

"But…why are you helping us?" Neku asked with a suspicious face. He knew clearly that this was the same person who continuously tried to screw them over with his never ending plans "I can see you still don't trust me but that's your choice and I don't really give a damn about what you think. But for now…if you wanna stay alive then you don't really have a choice," Unfortunately, he had a point.

"Wait! We still need to look for the others. They're still in here," Neku alerted after remembering that there were still some people trapped inside. The three searched the shopping area for them and eventually, they ran into Beat who was also running from the noise. It seemed that he caught up after all although judging from the situation right now, he couldn't really do much by himself so Sho immediately dashed in and erased the noise. Realizing who it was that saved him, Beat had a confused look on his face until Neku explained the current situation which cleared things up.

After another few minutes of searching, they met up with Rhyme and Eri who were currently surrounded by the frogs. Sho jumped in one more time to dispose of the noise and Neku once again explained the situation. Although they didn't quite trust Sho, they didn't have any other choice.

Finally, the group could see the exit in the distance. "We almost there!" Beat said as they neared the wide doors. Beat, Eri and Rhyme managed to get out safely but suddenly, a barrier appeared and blocked the rest from moving out of the large shopping area.

"What the digit!? Damn barrier!" Sho complained as he tried to break it, but nothing seemed to work. At that point, 4 red beings appeared before them. They looked human yet had features that noise would have. They also had angel wings on their backs. "Tch…they're here already?" Sho complained before looking at Neku and Shiki who were trapped too.

"Guess I have no choice. hey, you two, take these!" Sho threw two small circles to Neku and Shiki. Turns out that they were pins and the same pins that were used in the reaper's game. On Neku's hand, there was a shockwave pin. There was a telekinesis pin on Shiki's hand. After receiving them, they both gave Sho a confused look. "Don't worry kiddos. You'll be able to use those pins just fine. Just do what you normally did" Neku and Shiki, who were still rather confused, nodded in response.

"Well, let's get this party started then!" Sho shouted and charged at the winged beings, commencing the fight. Neku charged as well but Shiki stayed behind for support. "_Ok…let's see if I still remember how to do this,"_ Neku thought as he dashed towards one of the enemies. Surprisingly enough, Neku managed to use the pin normally as he tried to land a few hits on the enemy. Fortunately, his enemies weren't so strong or smart for that matter so Neku managed to dodge their attacks and hurt them a bit.

One of the enemies managed to sneak behind Neku and was about to land a hit if it wasn't for Shiki who hurled some fallen debris at it using the telekinesis pin. "Thanks for the help," He said, holding up his thumb. Shiki didn't have the groove pawn pin so she couldn't control Mr. Mew like before but she could still use telekinesis.

At this point, Sho had managed to beat one of them and so did Neku with the help of Shiki. "Two down…two to go," Neku mumbled staying alert. The enemy in front of Neku learned from the mistake of its ally and decided to charge directly at Shiki who was more of a hassle to deal with. At the snap of a finger, it was right at her back.

"Shiki, behind you!" Thanks to Neku's heads up, Shiki blocked the attack on time using debris as a shield. Using that as a distraction, Neku dashed at the enemy and gave it one strong slash, erasing it from existence.

Both sides were now finished with their fights which caused the barrier to disappear. "Are you guys alright?" Eri asked with a concerned look.

"We're just fine, see?" Shiki replied with a smile just before the pins that they were holding shattered and vanished into thin air. "Are pins supposed to do that?" Rhyme asked as the rest wondered what happened.

"That old man owes me some cash..." Sho muttered before turning back to the group. "I'm sure you guys are at a loss right now so let me shed some light on this. Those pins I gave you were automatic, meaning that anyone can use 'em whether in the reaper's game or not. Trade off is that they vanish when they lose all their energy...just like what happened right now. I was plannin' on selling them but that friggin' Hanekoma asked me to lend it to you guys if there was a need to," Sho concluded with a sigh.

"Mr. H did!? Where is he?" Neku felt an excited and anxious feeling inside of him just thinking that he could finally ask him the questions that he needed to ask. The others felt the same way too. "Whoa whoa, hold your horses. Bringing you to him is the next thing I'm supposed to do so chill out. Anyway, we should get going. Don't want anything else to pop out do you?"

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Sho eventually led them to the wildkat cafe. "Huh? But Mr. H ain't here anymore, yo" Beat said as Sho lifted his hand and suddenly, a translucent dome surrounded the group. "What the? What did you do?" Neku asked with the same suspicious tone again. "You just don't trust me do you? Well, just wait and see," As soon as Sho put his hand down, everything beyond the dome became white and it looked like the group was floating in nothingness.

The only one who seemed calm right now was Sho who watched as the white background slowly became more visible. The background was once again filled with Shibuya's buildings and the group was now in front of Wildkat once again. Weird thing though...is that they were the only ones around. "Huh? Where'd all the people go?" Shiki asked as she looked around. There was absolutely no one else; Just buildings and streets.

"Now that everyone's shocked outta their pants, let's go inside before I catch a cold here," Sho ordered and everyone went inside the cafe.

The minute they stepped inside the cafe, they caught sight of a familiar face that they haven't seen in a long time. "Hey there, boss. Long time no see," The man with shades said with that all familiar smile.

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And that ends the first chapter of The world begins with you. Next chapter I'll expand a bit on what's going on and hopefully answer a lot of questions that you have right now. It's also hard to keep imagining what the new Shiki looks like so I'll try drawing her or if someone could try drawing her for me then that would be a huge help. And no, I don't mean the Real Shiki that appeared at the end of the game. I wasn't really satisfied with the appearance so my description of her is different than what it showed in the ending. Well, see you soon.


	2. Angel's game

A correction on the first chapter. Eri should be the one wearing the star shaped hair pin since she's the one not wearing the hat anymore. Also, I'm still working on drawing the new Shiki but it's...really difficult for me. Also, a new character appears although he doesn't have much of a role in this chapter. I'll expand on him in the later chapters.

The World Begins With You  
Chapter 2: Angel's game

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"Mr. H...is that...really you?" Neku asked, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him and sure enough, they weren't. It was the exact same Sanae Hanekoma that had helped all of them during the reaper's game "In the flesh. How've you guys been?" Hanekoma replied with that same cool expression as always.

Before Neku could speak, Hanekoma asked everyone to take a seat before sitting down himself. "Now, I'm sure you kids are wondering just what Einstein over there's doing helping you guys. Well it's-" He was quickly interrupted by the ever energetic math wiz who slammed his fist on the table.

"The hell are you calling Einstein you old hag? So what if that geezer discovered a formula? I'd crush him and add him to the heap pile. CRUNCH! Just like that!"

"_Well that comment was sooo helpful"_ Neku thought hoping that Sho would shut up. Hanekoma noticed that everyone was starting to lose focus so he clapped his hands continiously until he got their attention back. "Well if everyone's ready to listen now, let's continue. You see, I hired Sho because right now, we'll need all the help we can get," The man said before reaching in to his pocket and taking out pieces of paper. He then put them on the table for everyone to see.

"Huh? What's this supposed to be?" Shiki asked as the group rolled their eyes over the papers. "These papers...are reports that I've written while all of you were playing the game. You see, I'm actually of...how can I say this? Another world,"

Hearing that statement, Beat quickly got the wrong impression of that. "Whoa! You mean you an alien!? But I thought they had green antenas and we're all like "we come in peace" kinda thing, yo?" The blonde said and everyone sighed as soon as he said that. Sho couldn't help himself but shoot back with another one of his insults.

"How zetta stupid can you possibly be? You probably can't even multiply a hundred by ten!" Sho challenged with a laugh before Beat vigoriously stomped one foot on the table "I can just fine! A hundred times ten equals ten thousand, yo! See, dig that!" Beat grinned although everyone except Sho sighed again with an embarassed blush. "Beat, it's a thousand. Not ten thousand" Rhyme corrected and Sho immediately laughed out loud.

"Ahahaha! I probably couldn't even add your brain to the heap coz' it's not even there!" Beat probably would've charged at Sho and started a brawl already if it weren't for Hanekoma who once again stopped the argument. "Geez, can't you let a guy finish first? Moooving on, I'm sure you still remember that the normal Shibuya was called the RG and the Shibuya used in the game was the UG right? Well, those two fall under the category of 'planes'. You could call them different dimensions if you want," Hanekoma adjusted his shades before continuing.

"Planes are numerous and are determined according to their frequency and the frequency would decide how much power you'd have in that certain area. The plane I belong to is the higher plane or the plane of angels which is far above either the UG or RG. In order to observe the reaper's game 6 months ago, I had to lower my frequency which also lowered my power by a lot. Think of it as a radio. To get to the radio station you want you'd have to change the frequency,"

"So...you were an observer of the game after all. No wonder you knew so much," Neku said as he took one of the papers from the table and started browsing it. "Yup, that's right. Now, the reason why reapers could actually appear in the RG is because the UG has a higher frequency then the RG and the only thing reapers had to do was just to adjust their frequency a bit so that it would be at the same level as that of the RG,"

A certain phrase on the paper Neku was holding managed to catch his interest and decided to bring it up "Fallen angel?" He mumbled as he looked at Hanekoma for an answer. "Yeah, Fallen angels are people of the higher plane that are considered as traitors for doing something against the code of the angels. Those red things that I'm sure you would've seen by now, are what happens to those fallen angels when the higher-ups get ahold of them. They're turned into some brainless numbskulls that only know how to kill. We call them the Soulless,"

Shiki suddenly glanced over at Sho then looked back at Hanekoma. "So, how'd you get him to cooperate," She asked, pointing at the black dressed man which made the middle aged man chuckle "Well, this guy actually owes me one for saving his butt. You could say that I'm the one who taught him how to summon all those Taboo noise," He said which surprised everyone. "Huh!? so it _was _you that put that sigil at Udagawa," Neku said as he recalled in his mind that large black sigil over at udagawa which was long gone now.

"I did but at the same time I didn't. If I explain this it'll just complicate things. Trust me alright?" He replied. Neku always did have faith in the guy so he decided to put that issue aside for now. Suddenly, Hanekoma's face looked a little more serious than his usual calm and cool expression that he always had.

"Now, it's time I hop on the main problem here. You see, Joshua's...in a big heap of trouble right now. Wait, let me rephrase that. We're ALL in a big heap of trouble. Right now, the seraphs, or the highest ranks on the higher plane, aren't thinking like they used to. We all agreed before that the reaper's game would determine the faith of Shibuya. If Joshua won, then Shibuya would be history but if Megumi won then it would be spared. Because Joshua won but didn't follow his own rules, the seraphs think that he'd been corrupted or something while he was in Shibuya. By the way, Joshua also had the rank of Seraph in the higher plane but now they think of him as a traitor,"

"So...do you know where he is?" Neku asked which put a slight frown on Hanekoma's face. "I don't know for sure.. The only thing I know is that he's in hiding right now and we can't contact each other because other Seraphs might be able to sense it. It only gets worse from there. The only place that the Seraphs haven't checked...or it's just that it's too dangerous to check is...the Noise plane which obviously...is inhabited and infested with noise,"

Because of that statement, Neku managed to remembe the time during the reaper's game where he and Joshua went to Pork City to confront Sho for the first time. Everytime they fought some noise, they were transported to a whole different area which was black and white. Neku decided that it would be wise to tell Hanekoma about that. "So you've already seen it huh? Well, that's where I think Joshua's been hiding. The angels won't go looking for him but the bad thing is...it's pretty dangerous there even for a Seraph..."

"So you want us to go look for prissy face?" Beat asked, trying to piece together the puzzle which made Sho clap his hands in sarcasm. "Bravo! Looks like you're not some stupid yoctogram after all!" He said and Beat once again took that the wrong way. "Yeah, that's right yo!" He said making everyone sigh one more time. "Beat, I think he's making fun of you..." Eri elaborated and everyone nodded in agreement, making Sho get a kick out of it again.

"Alright, enough with the jokes. This is serious business right now," Hanekoma sighed getting everyone's attention. "Fortunately, not everyone agrees with those seraphs. There are even a few seraph that disagree although they have to work in secret since majority of the seraph are still against Joshua but hey, at least we have help. Those Seraphs have come down to the RG to recruit some more people for this new game that we'll be playing," The word 'game' got everyone's attention.

Neku unconciously took his headphones off from his neck and started spinning them around with his index finger. "Another game huh? And here I thought we were through with all those. So we're playing the Seraphs now?" Neku asked finally getting the gist of the explanation which made Hanekoma grin "That's right. The Seraphs have organized a game that determines the faith of Joshua...and everyone on the entire RG,"

Shiki didn't like the sound of that one bit. Just hearing the phrase 'Entire RG' made her slam her hand on the table "E-Entire RG!? Why go that far with this!? It's not like innocent civilians have anything to do with this so why include them too!?" She exclaimed. Neku could see the anger in his friend's eyes and thought he should do someting "Shiki, calm down," Neku instructed, making Shiki look down at the table then sit back down. "Unfortunately, the people DO have something to do with this. The Seraphs think that if they were bad enough to corrupt a seraph of their own, then they should be thrown away. This is why this game is unlike any other Reaper's game that has ever happened and is also why we need as many players as possible on our side,"

"So what's the deal with the first round, yo?" Beat asked and Hanekoma rubbed his chin. "Well the first round of the game is simple. Whoever finds Joshua first, gets to do whatever they want with him so if the Seraphs win this round, he's a goner but I'm sure he's got faith in us,"  
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There was still one more thing bothering Neku. "So, what exactly do we use for fighting now? Is it still pins?" The orange haired boy asked which put a smile on Hanekoma's face. "Heh, finally we get to my favorite part. Hey missy, lend me that stuffed animal of yours" He asked as he pointed at Mr. Mew. "Y-You're not gonna make him my entry fee are you?" Shiki said making Hanekoma chuckle. "Of course not. That entry fee crap's over and done with," He assured so Shiki decided to lend him her stuffed Mr. Mew.

As soon as Hanekoma got ahold of it, he took out a pin that looked kinda like a telekinesis pin but at the same time, had a different design. "Ok, here we go!" Hanekoma slammed the pin against the doll causing a bright light that lasted for a few seconds. When everyone had their vision back, Mr. Mew was still there although the design of the pin was now etched on the chest of the stuffed animal.

After that, he set Mr. Mew on the ground and just smiled. After a moment, the stuffed animal got up on its feet and jumped unto Shiki's arms and started hugging her. "Big sis! Oh, I can finally talk to you! I'm so happy!" Everyone was surprised to death and their jaws just dropped as fast as you could solve 1 plus 1. "THE STUFFED ANIMAL JUST TALKED?!?!?!?!?!?!" Everyone except Shiki shouted in strange emphasis. You couldn't really blame them though.

"Y-You're talking! You're really talking!" Shiki happily said as she hugged the animal back while Neku, still in complete shock, turned his head towards Hanekoma. "W-What the hell...did you just do?" He asked and Hanekoma let out a laugh. "Like that little trick I pulled? The pin I used wasn't some ordinary pin. It's called a zodiac pin and it can only be used on objects that have a high deal of value to a person. These pins act as a bridge that connect a person's 'Soul' to any of the planes,"

"Soul? what's that?" The still shocked boy asked again "'Soul is the power of imagination that you use when operating any of the pins. You can call it a person's inner artistic approach if you want. You see, zodiac pins only have one ability each but the power that they have is more than 100 of the simpler pins combined. The one I just used is the 'zodiac of telekineses'. It's a telekineses pin that has the power of 100 telekineses pins combined into 1 formidable pin. Since Shiki's Groove pawn was under the category of Telekineses, that power was multiplied a hundred times over which even gave it the power to actually make it speak. The speaking part was also because of Shiki's Soul. Different souls have different effects"

"But you can only use one of those?" Neku asked one more time as he grew more interested. "That's the draw back of those pins. They need so much Soul power that using two or more might have a serious effect on you. The way better part is that zodiac pins have room for infinite possibilities. What I mean is that they can evolve in so many different ways making you learn different abilities with them. Say you have a zodiac of Shockwave pin. Shockwave's are just for close range right? The trick is that if you put enough training into it and you're creative enough, that pin could easily become a pin with abilities suitable for both close and long range attacks. Am I making sense?"

The group nodded, making Hanekoma smile. "Good, now I should show you another demonstration of this before I give this power to you guys. Ryou, you can come in now," He signalled to the backdoor and a person came out a moment later. The person had violet hair and blue eyes. His clothing was mostly black. His gloves, cloak, and pants were black. The only articles of clothing not black were his shoes and shirt which were both violet as well. He had a silent expression on his face which could be easily told even through his eyes. He looked about Neku's age and his most distinguishable things were his goggles and a long chain wrapped around his right arm.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Ryou. He's part of the plane of angels and decided to take part in this game on _our_ side. His rank is only archangel, which is the second lowest rank, but he's still pretty strong and he got the hang of zodiac pins right away. Show us what you can do, Ryou," Hanekoma instructed and the boy replied with a silent nod.

"_This guy's pretty quiet..."_ Neku thought as the boy took a dagger out of its sheath. After taking it out, he calmly closed his eyes and focused. In a short moment, the dagger suddenly changed into a long sword filled with flames surrounding it. It also had the symbol of a pyrokineses pin although it looked altered. "The pin that's in Ryou's dagger is the zodiac of pyrokineses. Because of his unique Soul, the dagger turned into a much more powerful sword filled with the power of fire from the pin,"

"_So this is what he meant by infinite possibilities..."_ an amazed Neku thought as the group stared in awe at the flaming sword which the boy eventually reverted back to a dagger.

After the demonstration, Hanekoma let the others decide what pins they would want to use. Beat chose the zodiac of shockwave which was put in his skateboard, Rhyme chose the zodiac of healing which was placed in her pendant, Eri chose the zodiac of ice pillars which was placed in her star hair clip which was given to her by Shiki. Before Neku could choose, Hanekoma stopped him.

"Neku, there's something you should know before I let you choose. Your particular Soul has more power than anyone else here. It's one of the most powerful Souls I've seen yet. It holds a lot of promise and could lead to so many more possibilities. When I analyzed the amount of Soul you have, I've determined that your Soul has the power for even 3 of the zodiac pins and that's not even where it can stop. Your Soul hasn't even reached its max yet and you might even be able to use more in the future. It's a phenomenon that not even Joshua could explain,"

Neku was once again completely surprised by his words. "Are you...serious? Is that why I was able to use every single pin in the reaper's game...?" He asked recalling each and every pin he ever used in the reaper's game.

"Now, Neku my question to you is...which pins will you use to fight in the Angel's game?"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And cliffhanger ends here. Hope you enjoyed that chapter. Took me awhile to piece together myself all the details and whatnot. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask. I'm still searching for a unique combo that Neku could use so I'd like to ask you guys to tell me your suggestions on what zodiac pins Neku should use and maybe I'll use that for the next chapter. Also, more Mr. Mew-ness and its newly found voice in the next chapter so stay tuned. I'll also explain why Eri gave Shiki the hat and why Shiki gave Eri that hairpin in the next chapter. Guyinblack out.


	3. Practice Run

The World Begins With You

Chapter 3: Practice Run

"So these are the pins that you want to use? Interesting combination I gotta say. Well, I'm gonna need that object of value now," Hanekoma reached out his hand and waited for Neku to choose what to give him. Neku thought hard about it because he knew that the power of the pin was also dependent on how valued that certain object was. After thouroughly searching his mind, he finally took the headphones around his neck and handed them to Hanekoma.

"The very thing you used to block out other people, is now something really important to you. You're just full of surprises, boss. Well, here we go!" The man with shades then slammed the three chosen pins unto the Headphones, creating that same bright light as everyone else's. When the light vanished, the blue headphones now had a combined design of a shockwave, force rounds, and first gear pins etched unto each circle end of the headphones.

"A shockwave for close combat, force rounds for long range and first gear that acts as both offence and defence. Pretty clever and I'm already looking forward to what they'll become in the future," Hanekoma said as he handed back Neku his headphones.

"Now I'm gonna need Beat, Rhyme, and Eri to stay behind for awhile. I just need to 'clarify' some things. After that I'm gonna call on Neku, Shiki, and Ryou so you three can take some time off for now. Hey, while you're at it you can show Ryou around the RG. He's never been there before in his whole life so it could be a good learning experience for him. That okay with you?" He asked looking at the violet haired boy who replied with a nod.

"Hey, hey," Sho interrupted "Don't leave me hangin' here. I really don't like getting bored" He complained although unfortunately he was asked to stay behind and help Hanekoma out with something.

"Well, now that that's settled, off you go you three. I'll contact you later," Hanekoma concluded and at that note, Neku, along with Shiki and the new member of the group, exited the café although they were still in that empty Shibuya. "Wait…how do we go back again?" Neku asked, hoping his new companion knew the answer.

"Your weapons…just concentrate and that'll change your frequency…" The silent boy suddenly spoke out which made Shiki think that the boy wasn't mute after all "Hey, you talked. For a second there I thought you were gonna ignore us," Shiki said half embarrassed.

"Hey Ryou, just where are we exactly anyway?" Neku asked as he looked around the empty Shibuya. "Parallel World…now let's be on our way," Ryou quickly responded as he gripped the dagger which started shining in a few moments. Neku and Shiki did the same with their valued possessions and surely enough, they glowed brightly as well. In a flash, the white dome surrounded the group and they were back in the RG in a matter of seconds.

"Freaky…" Mr. Mew suddenly muttered out which surprised Neku "I'm still not used to this pig talki-" Before he could finish his insult, the boy was immediately interrupted by the animal's claw which had made contact with Neku's face.

"I'm not a pig you orange porcupine!" Mr. Mew insulted, making Neku almost literally pop a blood vessel. "I'm gonna slit you and let the stuffings fly out you freaking pig," Neku threatened with an evil grin which scared the toy half to death and made it jump unto Shiki's arms with a frightened look. "Neku, you're scaring the poor thing! There, there, are you okay now?" Shiki said warmly as she patted the frightened stuffed cat.

Seeing the 'touching moment' in front of him, Neku's eye unconciously twitched in irritation "He's the one that attacked me in the **first place**," He complained but she quickly fired back. "Yeah, but YOU"RE the one who called him a pig in the **first place**. I told you so many times already that he's NOT a pig,".

As soon as she finished her little lecture, Shiki suddenly blushed in embarassment because she knew that there was _another_ person witnessing their argument "O-Oh, sorry about that, Ryou. Anyway, we should show you around now right? Well, let's go," She offered with a smile but something still bothered Neku. There was the fact that Mr. Mew was actually _alive_ now by its own free will "Hey Shiki, don't you think it's a little weird if people saw a walking stuffed animal on the streets?"

He had a good point. People would freak if they saw something like that. "Yeah, you've got a point. I guess I'll just carry him then. Don't do anything suspicious okay, Mr. Mew?" She asked and the toy cat nodded before being picked up by the brunette.

Time passed by as Neku and Shiki showed Ryou around the streets of the RG Shibuya. Ryou didn't talk much but he still seemed a bit interested since the times when he actually talked were questions about the places that were shown to him. At one point While they were showing him around, a large screen on one of the buildings caught his interest. Apparently, the large screen was showing a preview to some new Anime that would come out soon.

After a few steps, Neku and Shiki realized that Ryou was far behind them and walked back to him. "Oh that? That's called anime if you didn't know. It's pretty nice to watch every now and then," Shiki explained to the astonished boy who continued to watch the moving pictures until the large screen showed something else.

"Anime?" He muttered out and Neku nodded. "Yeah, that's right. You mean you didn't know? I didn't think the higher plane and the RG had that much of a difference,"

"There's…a big difference actually. Many of the things here…don't exist where I come from," Ryou explained as he looked away from the TV and back at Neku. "I see. Well, do you like it here so far?" Neku asked out of curiosity and Ryou responded with a quick nod.

"It's…quite interesting…your plane," The violet haired teen said with a silent tone. Shiki scanned her eyes around Ryou and noticed that there was at least something in common "Well, at least your fashion sense is more or less like ours. Your clothes are pretty cool but that chain around your right arm really makes me wonder…" Shiki commented as she looked at the chain wrapped around Ryou's arm.

"This…is nothing of concern…" He quickly replied as he gripped his right chained arm. Suddenly, the conversation was interrupted by the noise of a stomach grumble and amazingly, everyone traced the sound to the little stuffed toy known as Mr. Mew. "Did I just…hear its stomach grumble…?" Neku asked with a seriously confused expression on his face.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At Ramen Don…

"Mr. Mew…sure eats a lot…" Shiki muttered with a confused smile on her face. Apparently, the stuffed animal was on his third bowl already and apparently, so was Ryou but his bowls were even extra large bowls of ramen.

Neku looked around the restaurant and as expected, people were starting to notice obviously because there was a stuffed toy that was actually moving and eathing by itself. Usually, stuff toys tend to 'play dead' if anything else "Shiki…we have a problem…" He whispered into Shiki's ear and she also realized that people were starting to stare. Shiki could only think of trying to make Mr. Mew act like a puppet so she did. "Y-Yeah it's good isn't it, Mr. Mew….ahahaha…"

It didn't really look like much of a ventriloquist act though...

"Yeah that's _really_ gonna work…" Neku whispered again before the group decided to make Mr. Mew stop eating. Eventually, the people returned to their meals. "Phew…we really need to work something out with this…" Shiki sighed.

Something else suddenly crossed Neku's mind and decided to ask about it. Actually, he had a _lot_ to ask but he thought he'd start with something simple first "Hey Ryou, you never told us your last name yet," He said which caused the violet haired teen to look down at the table with a sad look on his face.

"I…was never given one…" He replied which confused the others. When they asked him why, he didn't answer and they realized that it might be better not to ask anymore.

When they asked him about his interests or dreams in life, he only responded with a "I'm not so sure…" or a "Nothing much…" which was kind of expected from him. When Shiki asked about his love interests, he only responded with stunned silence.

"_I don't get this guy at all…"_ Neku thought as he tried thinking of another question to ask. "So…any siblings? How about your parents?"

"They're…all gone now…" Ryou replied which suddenly made Neku feel stupid and sad at the same time. "Oh…sorry to hear that. Must've been tough for you," Neku remembered how it felt to be alone in the world. He really didn't like people at first but it seemed like Ryou was different. It didn't seem like Ryou disliked people, he just seemed to stay away from them for a different reason. Question was, what exactly was that reason?

"_This guy's hiding a whole bunch of things…but for now I'd rather not get into that. Maybe another time," _

Neku decided to change the topic for now. "Hey Shiki, Eri gave you that hat right?" He asked, pointing at the large brown hat that she was wearing. Neku clearly remembered that hat being on Shiki's former body as well although he _did_ think it looked better on the current Shiki.

"Yup, when we came back to life from the Reaper's game, Eri was just so happy to see me again and I was really happy to see her too. Eri wanted to make that day memorable so she gave me her hat as a 'Welcome back' present. I didn't really want to take her hat without giving something in return so I insisted that she have my star hairclip in exchange for her hat,"

"_It's more of a 'welcome back to life' present but…I'm glad things worked out between them," _Neku smiled unconsciously at that thought.

Neku was brought out of that chain of thought when his phone suddenly started to ring. He answered it and was immediately greeted by Hanekoma's voice. "Hey boss, I'm gonna need you three to come back now. Meet back at Wildkat then leave the frequency changing to Ryou. Over and out," The phone hung up and Neku put the phone back in his pocket.

"Time to go?" Shiki asked predicting what the call was about. Neku nodded and the group then proceeded back to Wildkat to meet up with the others.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At Mayashita Park around evening…

The group was walking in the almost empty park. There weren't half as many people as usual which seemed somewhat odd in a way.

"Hey Neku, what do you think Mr. Hanekoma wants us to do?" Shiki asked but Neku just shrugged making her frown at him. "Well you're not being helpful…"

Suddenly though, the valued possessions they were holding started to glow dimly. None of the three knew what was going on except for Mr. mew who had a hunch. "I'm sensing something, big sis…and I don't think it's friendly…" The cat mumbled trying to stay alert. Mr. mew, neku's headphones, and Ryou's dagger still continued to glow dimly.

"Are these things…responding to something?" Neku wondered as he looked around the area. There wasn't anything around to take notice off except for the fact that there weren't many people but that's quite normal. "It's coming…" Ryou mumbled as he moved his eyes around as if searching for something.

"W-What's coming?" Shiki asked as Ryou slowly took the dagger out of its sheath and readied himself. Suddenly, a few noise jumped out of nowhere and charged at the group. Ryou quickly turned his dagger into a flaming sword and cut them in half before they could make a move.

"Damn, what a perfect time for this to happen," Neku complained as the group continued to look out for more noise. Sure enough, more of them appeared and started to surround the group. Actually, the noise they were facing right now were Taboo noise for some reason.

"Big sis! Yell the word 'Pin!' Quickly, big sis!" Mr. Mew alerted and Shiki did just that. In a moment, Mr. Mew turned into a small black pin with its face etched on the it.

Shiki was a bit confused but Mr. Mew's voice spoke out from the pin to help her. "To use me, you have to yell out some commands! Yell 'Bullet' and I'll appear as a huge beam that can knock them flat! Yell 'shield' and I'll appear as a shield to protect you, big sis! I've got a few more but that'll have to wait!"

"Alright, thanks for the info! Let's try this out first. 'Bullet!'" Shiki commanded and a huge black beam was fired from the pin which managed to get a hit on some of the noise, erasing them. "Nice one, big sis!" The voice congratulated just before a few noise suddenly popped out of nowhere and charged at her.

"Shield!" She yelled out and a large shield with Mr. Mew's face on it appeared in front of her. She swung the shield and managed to knock back the noise, giving her enough room to blast them with another beam. "You're really getting the hang of this, big sis! Keep it up!"

Meanwhile, Neku wasn't having as much of a good time as the rest because right now, there was one big problem "Damnit…I can't believe it's not working!" Neku said as he put his hand forward to use the force rounds pin. Sadly, nothing was coming out which left Neku to dodge the noise without even landing an attack on them.

"Tch…what do I do?" Neku tried to think of what might be wrong but it was rather difficult to think while dodging all the noise plus he didn't even know where to start. Neku's attention was suddenly called to Ryou who spoke to him. "Remember what Hanekoma said," He muttered just before dodging an attack and slicing the noise to pieces.

"Remember…what he said?" Neku took the advice to heart and searched his brain for a key phrase that Hanekoma mentioned. "_Remember, everyone's got their own unique soul and you can best take advantage of that by choosing a style that suits you best"_

"A style that suits me best? Does that…work for my weapon too?" Neku asked himself as he gripped the headphones that were still hanging around his neck.

"Might as well take a chance!" Neku took the headphones off his neck and decided to wear them how they're supposed to be worn; on the head.

As soon as he wore them, his hands started glowing a yellowish color which told him that it was finally working "That did the trick. Now, let's get creative!" Neku immediately transformed the yellow shockwaves on his hands into twin shockwave daggers which he held with his two hands. It was now possible to do that with the abilites gained from the zodiac pin. Using the first gear ability, he moved at a phenomenal speed as he moved from one noise to the next while slicing them.

"Alright, now let's see what I can do about the force rounds," Neku decided to mold the left dagger into a gun which was also made of pure shockwave material. With his right, he sliced all the incoming noise and with the left, attacked the farther noise with the shockwave gun. With the First gear, he doubled the speed at which he erases the noise. A combo that works great for both offensive and defensive tactics.

With the combined efforts of the three players, the noise's numbers went down as quickly as it could go until finally, a large rhino taboo noise appeared in front of the group. "I always hated those things…" Neku complained as he readied himself although was stopped by Ryou.

"Wait. Let me..." Ryou offered as he stepped forward. The boy then put up a stationary stance while focusing all his power on the flaming sword.

Ryou continued his stance as the Rhino drew closer and closer. Finally, the flaming sword grew about 10 times larger than its original size and with one powerful yet quick swing, he erased the Rhino noise.

"_That was…a 'massive hit' psych. I've used __it before so I still know it when I see it. Does that mean…Ryou's using two zodiac pins?" _Neku thought as Ryou reverted the sword back to a normal looking dagger.

"I think we're just about done now," Shiki said before she reverted the pin back into the stuffed toy who immediately jumped unto her arms "You were great, big sis!" Mr. Mew said with a big smile on his face which made Shiki chuckle. "Thanks! You were great too!"

Neku decided to clear his doubts about the abilities that Ryou possessed. This was also one of the many limitless questions that Neku wanted to get rid off "Ryou, you never told us that you had two zodiac pins in that dagger," He mentioned suspiciously.

"Sorry…it never occurred to me because no one ever asked," The silent boy spoke as he bowed his head slightly in apology.

"_Is this guy…for real?"_ Neku had a clueless expression on his face as he thought that. Ryou seemed like an ok guy except that he had this usual blank expression on his face. During battle though, his face becomes more alert and that could easily be distinguished even by an old man.

"By the way, I wanna thank you…for the advice, I mean" Neku said and Ryou smiled back although it looked like a blank kind of smile.

"No Problem,"

The group looked around the area and noticed that the people were acting just normal despite everything that had happened. "Umm…don't you guys find it kinda weird that everyone's not…you know…freaking out right now?" Shiki blurted out just before Neku's cellphone rang. Neku had a really good hunch who it was that was calling him.

"I know you had something to do with this," Neku quickly said into the phone which made Hanekoma laugh. "You've got a keen eye you know that, boss? So, when did you find out?"

"Well, one big give away is that the people here weren't doing anything at all except watch. Normally, wouldn't people completely lose it or at least call the police if they saw something like that? The other reason is that we three were the only ones targeted out of all the other people in the area. The final reason was that there were too little people in the area which kind of connects with the other two reasons,"

Ryou and Shiki were surprised at how well Neku managed to observe the situation even while fighting. His third reason though sounded more of a wild guess but it still worked anyway.

"Haha, well you're right. Those taboo noise were from Sho. I asked him to summon some noise for me so I could test out how well you could use those new abilities you got. I'm pretty impressed. You did better than I'd pictured it to be. I also had the same thing done to Beat, Rhyme, and Eri. They did pretty good too. At least I can sleep well now knowing that you guys won't be erased by some random encounter with the noise. Oh by the way, those people around you were just some of my guys just keeping an eye out if anything went wrong. Well, meet back at wildkat now. Over and out,"

The phone hung up making Neku put the phone back in his pocket. "That's one sneaky guy," Mr. Mew commented with an angry expression on his face.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at Wildkat…

"We saw your fight. Pretty sick, yo!" Beat said as he pointed to the TV. Apparently, one of the guys at Mayashita park had been recording the whole fight and sending it back to Wildkat via…something. Maybe some satellite feedback or…Bluetooth?

"Yeah, but let's just forget the part where Neku couldn't use his weapon and was pretty useless for like 3 minutes," Eri teased which surprised Neku. He didn't think they actually saw that part which was a bit embarrassing.

Hanekoma cleared his throat to get the group's attention. "Well, I guess you all know how to defend yourselves now. Things like that are sure to happen since the Seraphs really plan on winning this game and one of the ways to do that is by taking out the competition,"

"Those guys ain't got balls, yo" Beat said angrily, making Hanekoma frown. "Well, not anymore I guess. They weren't like that before though. I just don't know what's gotten into those heads of theirs. Anyway, I'm sure the Seraphs will pull out both Soulless and noise to come out and stall us. Both us and them still don't know how to get to the noise plane yet so they're doing all they can in the meantime. Here's another bad part. The seraphs also plan on strengthening themselves by making an army of Soulless and noise. Sadly, the only way to do that is by making them control other people and absorb their 'Soul' so they can multiply,"

"But what happens to the people after their 'Soul' are gone?" Rhyme asked. Hanekoma adjusted his shades before speaking. "Many things can happen to them. They can become severely stressed, aggressive towards people, tire out easily, lose their desire to communicate with people and the worst that can happen to them is that they'll break down and fall into a coma since their 'Soul' is basically what keeps them attached to the RG. Fortunately, there's a way to counter that. You've gotta take out the noise before they can do any damage,"

"So, how do we do that?" Neku questioned hoping for a good answer. "When I fused the zodiac pins with your items, I also installed a sort of tracker in them that are able to detect noise or Soulless when they're in the area. It's kinda like the player pins you used in the last game. When they glow, they're nearby. What you have to do after is to focus and search for the noise with your mind. Concentrate your mind and you'll find em'. Easier said than done but we don't really have a choice right now"

"But…we can't fight them everywhere. Shibuya's just too big to stop all the noise and Soulless before they start attacking people…" Shiki mumbled with a frown but Hanekoma smiled at that. "That's why…me and other angels have already begun recruiting more players. Especially the ones that played during the Reaper's game. We might not be able to save them all, but we can still cut that number by a lot with the help of everyone. Even as we speak, my friends are already trying to find a way to bring back a person's stolen 'Soul' in the case that it's taken over,"

Hearing that, everyone's mood started to lift and a hopeful look came across their faces. "We're gonna win this game, no problem," Neku confidently said as he crossed his arms.

Now, Neku and the many more players in Shibuya play one more game for their sakes, and for the sake of everyone else in Shibuya and the world as well. Although many people won't even notice that the game is taking place, the players will still try their best to win. In this Angel's game, losing isn't an option…

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And that ends this chapter. Hope you liked it. Next chapter, the first round of the game begins. Unlike the reaper's game, no one knows when this game will end. There's no 1 week limit or things like that. Now, the limit is totally unknown. If that sounded a bit cheesy then sorry about that. By the way, from here on out (Unless I can't think of anything), every chapter will end with a short random skit that takes place after the author's notes or my notes for that matter.

Well, here's the first one

*Neku and co. are eating at Ramen Don*

Beat: Alright, I'm stuffed. Now let's go kick some ass to digest the grub, yo!

Neku: Are you crazy? You're not supposed to move around so much right after eating that much.

Shiki: Neku's right, you could clog your digestive system if you try that.

Beat: Ah that's a buncha BS. There's no way that could happen, yo

Neku: Well if that's what you think, go right ahead

Beat: I think I'll do that. Well, here I come freakin' noise! Come get some!

*Beat fights a few noise*

Result screen: Beat digested the ramen. Attack + 1!

Beat: Awright yo! That's what I'm talking about!

Result screen: But he also gained 'Appendicitis' from fighting too much on a full stomach!

Beat: I don't feel so good, yo…….

Neku: we tried to tell you didn't we?

Mr. Mew: It's times like these where I love being a stuffed toy


	4. Rescue

Well, here's chapter 4 of TWBWY. Yeah I know it's harder to pronounce but I can't think of any other abbreviation. Well, here we go,

The World Begins With You

Chapter 4: Rescue

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Neku, Shiki, Ryou, and Eri were now standing in front of the Pork City building. They were there because that was the only way to get to the noise plane because that place, for some reason, acted as a bridge that can connect multiple planes together, including the noise plane. The angel plane, however, was not part of the list.

"Well, let's see what this thing can do," Neku said and the four entered some sort of dimension warp

(Flashback)

"For a long time now, Pork City's frequency's been really strange," Hanekoma paused for a moment before continuing. "For some reason that even we don't know, Pork City has multiple frequencies that can be used to connect to other planes although it takes some special circumstances. I'm sure you've noticed this before, right neku?"

Neku nodded as he recalled that everytime Joshua and Neku would encounter noise inside Pork City, they were transported to a black and white area that looked like it had come from bad cable.

"Right now though, that place can directly connect to the noise plane without those special circumstances but for a limited time only. Also, I have no idea how long it'll actually take for another chance like this to come along. Maybe a day, or a month, or even a year. It's like an eclipse if you ask me,"

"So what you're saying is…we only have like one shot at this?" Shiki asked Hanekoma who seemed to be in deep thought. "Probably but it really depends on the gap. Anyway, it would be best if we tried to rescue Joshua with this one chance we have right now. I'm sure the Seraphs plan on doing the same,"

Hanekoma then switched his focus to the people in front of him. "Now, I'm gonna need two people for another task. Beat and Rhyme, you'll be helping Sho take out the Soulless that try to enter Pork City through the new 'dimension warp'. I'm sure they're looking for Joshua too so a hunch tells me they'll try Pork City,"

The two siblings nodded with determined looks on their faces "Sure thing Mr. H. Jus' don't take too long, Phones. I don't feel like standing guard the whole day you know,"

"Phones? Why are we back to calling me that again?" Neku irritatingly said which made Beat grin. "Well since you wearin' it on your head now, it kinda reminded me of the name ya know?"

(End of Flashback)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The four players were once again in front of Pork City only this time, everything except them was black and white. "It's like we're in a movie from the 1900's" Eri commented as the group looked around the colorless area.

Suddenly, both Neku and Ryou activated their psyches in reaction to something they thought would be hostile to them "I had a feeling this was gonna happen," In a snap of a finger, the group was surrounded by noise that almost filled the whole street.

"Tch…there's too many of them…" Ryou complained as they could only wait for the noise to make a move. Sadly, the only way out was through the noise that numbered in the hundreds so if they were to try ramming through them then it would prove to be a great challenge.

Suddenly, the group sensed yet something else in the area although it was more of an ally than a foe "Need a hand, Neku?" A cocky and sly voice called out. Neku immediately recognized that voice when a light blue beam suddenly rained down on the noise and erased a good number of them. Neku had consistently seen that attack during the reaper's game so he knew exactly who it was that had helped them.

To everyone's surprise, the composer of the Reaper's game appeared right in front of them, the same smile on his face which more or less irritated Neku through the whole 2nd week "Hey there, Neku. Long time no see. You too Ryou," Joshua said with a smile. Nothing's really changed with his appearance except that his white polo shirt was now long sleeved. Because of Joshua's attack, the noise decided to flee for the time being.

At the sight of his former superior, Ryou suddenly bowed his head like a formal salute. "It's good to see you again" he said which made Joshua chuckle. "Please, you don't need to be so formal. I've told you that so many times already,"

Ryou bowed his head again but this time in apology which made Joshua chuckle again. Apparently, Ryou had a bad habit of greeting people unconciously. Neku wondered for a moment how Ryou knew Joshua but suddenly remembered that Ryou was actually from the plane of angels so it was reasonable that they had known each other already beforehand.

Neku was distracted from his current thought when Hanekoma suddenly contacted him through his phone. "Hey I see you've entered the noise plane. Josh's there with you right? Could I talk to him for a sec?"

Neku looked around the area in confusion. "Uhh Mr. H, how did you know that Joshua was here?" He asked as he continued to move his eyes around.

"I put a little something in your phones…again" Hanekoma said with a grin. Neku didn't even wanna ask anymore because he thought it might complicate things so he just decided to shut it "_This guy never stops surprising me…"_

Neku turned towards Joshua and Ryou who were still talking and gave the phone to the composer who was immediately greeted by his middle-aged subordinate "Hey kiddo, good to see you- I mean hear you again! So, how's the noise plane? Havin' fun?" Joshua sighed at Hanekoma's overly friendly tone. It was like a dad calling to check up on his son who went on a camping trip.

"Yeah, I'm having the time of my life…anyway, I found out something while I was hiding in the noise plane. Actually, I found _someone._ Do you remember Satoshi Taraka?"

"Huh? Oh yeah the 'virtue' ranked angel that was executed for illegal research on Soulless? What about him?"

"He's alive…but not exactly that much _alive_ anymore. I think he's turned himself into a Soulless," That phrase managed to put a shocked look on Hanekoma's face. "So you think he's planning something big?"

"Pretty much and that's why I need to stay here for a little while longer. I know I don't have much time left but I can't just leave this be," Joshua said with a determined tone. "I see…that's just like you. Well hurry it up alright? We don't have much time," On that note, the two hung up and Joshua gave the phone back to Neku.

"So what was that about?" Neku asked Joshua who decided to explain the situation.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So to sum it all up…we have to go inside Pork City, kick the noise's ass, meet up with this Takeshi guy, and kick his ass too?" Neku asked and Joshua replied with a nod. "Yup and I'm gonna need you guys to help me do it,"

Everyone agreed to help him on the condition that if the entrance to the planes would start to close then he would quit his current objective and go back to the RG with everyone else since no one knows when that entrance would actually open again.

As soon as they entered the noise plane's pork city, they immediately noticed that the layout was totally different than the layout of the Pork City back in the RG. There was one big door in front of them which they suspiciously scanned.

"It could be a trap…" Shiki warned but Ryou immediately rammed the door down using his flame sword psych which managed to irritate Neku "Ryou…what part of 'it could be a trap' don't you get…?" Neku sighed as the group proceeded through the door anyway.

A thought passed through the composer's mind and decided to alert his friends about it "By the way, when he was still human, Takeshi was a bit…off…just so you know," Joshua said and when everyone asked what he meant by that, he replied with a "You'll see" which confused them even more.

Eventually, they reached a large dark empty room with a very suspicious box in the middle. Actually, it even had the words 'suspicious box' written on it for some reason "It could be another-" Before Shiki could say it was another trap, Ryou immediately slashed it open with his sword which once again annoyed everyone "STOP DOING THAT!" the group scolded at Ryou who bowed his head once again in apology.

When they tried to take a closer look at the box, a small round ball with a seriously weird grin popped out of the box and began to speak. "WELCOME ALL OF YOU TO TAKESHI"S PLAYGROUND. WATCH YOUR STEP OKAY KIDS?"

"What…the hell?" Neku mumbled as he figured out what Joshua meant by "a little off". When the lights finally opened, a large checkered square space revealed itself to the group. On each corner of the square were similarly large circles that had pin designs on them. They kind of looked like bumper cars in an amusement park.

"IT'S TIME FOR TIN PIN SLAMMER EVERYONE! BUT IT'S NOT JUST SOME ORDINARY TIN PIN SLAMMER, NO, IT"S **HUMAN** TIN PIN SLAMMER!"

"Human…tin pin slammer?" Eri questioned herself as the smiling ball continued to talk.

"ON EACH CORNER ARE EXTREMLY LARGE PINS THAT YOU CAN ENTER. INSIDE EACH PIN ARE CONTROLS THAT ARE TO BE USED BY TWO PEOPLE; ONE THAT DRIVES THE PIN AND ONE THAT FUNCTIONS ALL THE SPECIAL MOVES. YOUR JOB IS TO SIMPLY KNOCK THE OPPENENT PINS OFF THE SQUARE,"

As soon as it finished talking, the space surrounding the square arena suddenly dropped into a black endless pit. You couldn't even hear the 'Thump' that you usually hear when something drops and hits the ground.

"BUT BE WARNED: IF YOU'RE THE ONE THAT GETS KNOCKED OFF, THEN KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE! HAVE FUN!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The group went over a strategy meeting before entering the pins. Since each pin needed two people for it to operate, Neku paired up with Shiki and Ryou paired up with Eri. Joshua stayed on the sidelines because he said that he had a plan to make sure that they don't lose.

The players entered the top and bottom corner pins on the left side meaning that the ones on the right would be their opponents.

Everyone took a minute to familiarize themselves with the controls. Neku and Ryou chose to drive their separate pins while Shiki and Eri decided to operate the offensive functions of the pins.

"IF EVERYONE'S READY THEN LET'S COUNTDOWN! THREE…TWO…ONE…SLAM ON!"

The match was officially started by a buzzing sound which made the opponent pins move automatically. "All right, prepare to get served!" Neku stepped on the gas pedal with full force, making the 'pin' go at a record breaking speed. "N-Neku I don't think we should go this fast yet!" Shiki said as she wrapped her arms around Mr. Mew who seemed to be seriously panicking at present.

Neku eventually collided with the opponent pin but because he was going so fast, he accidentally lost control of the steering which made him bump Ryou's pin by accident. "Hey! Be more careful you guys!" Eri shouted just before their pin collided with the opponent pin.

"Tch…this is pretty intense," Ryou complained as the opponent pin charged in for another strike. Eri immediately used the spike ball ability which managed to counter the opponent's attack. Ryou launched a strike on the pin but unfortunately, wasn't strong enough to knock it out of the arena.

Suddenly, the enemy pin disappeared from sight, leaving Ryou and Eri confused. In a few moments, Ryou sensed that the enemy was actually dropping from above and he drove the pin out of harm's way just in time. The bad part was that the enemy immediately used a hammer ability which managed to stun Ryou's pin.

"Darn, I can't move the controls" Ryou complained as he tried stepping on the gas pedal again. His pin was also near enough to the edge for the enemy to be able to knock them off with a quick strike. As all hope seemed lost, a car suddenly dropped out of nowhere just in time to block the enemy pin's strike.

"Thanks Joshua!" Eri waved at the long haired teen who waved back with a cell phone in hand. Joshua sat quietly at the audience bench with a grin. Obviously, that car was his doing.

"HEY THAT'S CHEATING! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" the smiling ball shouted at Joshua who put his phone back in his pocket. "Is that so? I don't remember you saying that before the game started. Do you?"

"ERR…YOU LITTLE DEMON," the ball grunted which made Joshua chuckle. Suddenly, Ryou thought up a very unorthodox way to knock the opponent pin out. He instructed Eri to take the wheel and got out of the bumper car-like pin and stood on one spot. The enemy pin immediately decided to stop attacking Eri's pin and charged right at Ryou who quickly turned his dagger into a flaming sword.

As the pin drew closer, Ryou's focus grew stronger until he finally used the 'massive hit' psych to make his sword 10 times larger. He immediately took up a baseball stance and swung the sword with everything he had. Just as he expected, the pin was smacked right out of the arena just like in a baseball game.

"Home Run…" Ryou mumbled as he held up a thumbs up sign to his partner who did the same "Wow…you just solve _all_ your problems with that sword…" Eri muttered with a weird grin on her face.

Neku and Shiki caught sight of that awkward win and also had a similarly weird grin on their faces. "_What's with that guy…?"_ They thought right before the enemy pin collided with them again which made Shiki lean on Neku's shoulder by accident. They immediately realized how close they were and quickly backed up from each other, both blushing slightly. "Y-You know what, I think I'm going with Ryou's idea. Take the wheel, Shiki and ram that idiot when I give the signal" Neku instructed as he got off the giant pin.

"R-Roger" Shiki nodded still blushing slightly. As expected, the enemy quickly chose to ram Neku instead of trying to hit Shiki's pin. When the enemy got close enough, Neku immediately used the 'teleport' psych to teleport a few feet and dodge the attack. "Shiki, take it down!" Neku signalled.

"Here goes!" The cap wearing girl cried out while Mr. Mew covered his eyes in fear. She successfully landed a good hit on the enemy, making it fly miles away out of the arena and into the bottomless pit below.

"AND WE HAVE OUR WINNERS (ALTHOUGH THEY CHEATED) BUT WE STILL HAVE OUR WINNERS!"

The four players then exited the square arena through a narrow bridge and proceeded back to where Joshua and the smiling ball were.

"So, are we done now?" Joshua asked the smiling ball which started bouncing. "YUP YUP, THANKS FOR PLAYING. I'LL OPEN THE DOOR NOW SO YOU CAN SEE MASTER" As soon as it said that, the door at the other end of the room swung open.

"WELL, THERE YOU GO AND ONCE AGAIN, THANKS FOR PLAY-" before it could finish, Ryou once again used his sword to slice the ball in half. "Sorry, it was a bit annoying," He apologized but everyone was actually glad he did that.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eventually, the group reached an elevator which they rode all the way to the top floor. As soon as the elevator door opened. they saw dozens of capsules with both noise and Soulless trapped inside them which the group observed as they walked along. "I guess Satoshi's done more research than I thought," Joshua mumbled as he stopped and looked closely at one of the capsules labelled "form 2".

Neku also caught sight of the capsule and the label that was on it. "What does 'Form 2' mean?" He asked and Joshua frowned.

"The Soulless are divided into 3 forms according to how much they've grown. Soulless evolve and multiply by taking over the 'souls' of other people. The other Seraphs in the higher plane plan on making a Soulless and noise army for a reason that even I don't know but I think I have a hunch. I think they plan on using them to erase the RG if they happen to win but like I said, it's just a hunch…"

A voice suddenly drew the attention of the group. "Bravo, bravo! I expected nothing less from a Seraph such as yourself," The voice said and a figure eventually revealed itself. It looked half human and half Soulless. It also only had one angel wing. Joshua immediately recognized the person from his still human half. He had long white hair, yellow eyes, and a smile on his face that looked like it could scare children away.

"I see you've made a lot of progress with your research but I don't think I can allow you to keep on doing this, Satoshi" Joshua threatened with a grin which made the half human laugh. "What makes you think you can tell me what to do? I don't even think you're in a position to make demands,"

Soulless and noise alike appeared in front of them and immediately surrounded them in mere seconds "Darn...we don't much time anymore to deal with these things. I'm not sure how long the gate will stay open or how long Beat and the others can hold out the Soulless on their side,"

"Then I guess we'll just have to finish this quickly, right?" Joshua said as he took out his phone and sent multiple white beams flying at the noise.

The others also got to work on the noise and Soulless in the area. "Bullet!" Shiki exclaimed and a black beam was fired from the Mr. Mew pin and took out a few noise. She didn't notice however that there were still some noise behind her but luckily, pillars of ice rose from the ground which erased the noise just in time.

"Thanks a bunch, Eri!" Shiki smiled right before realizing that Eri's boots had turned into some sort of ice skates. "Cool huh? I thought since I was pretty good at ice skating that I should use my psych to make some ice skates,"

"Wow, I thought that psych only worked for making ice pillars," Shiki replied as she recalled what Hanekoma said about infinite possibilities.

"That's what I thought too but I could actually freeze things that aren't so big in size. It's kinda like a superhero or something," Eri giggled but the two were interrupted by more noise that surrounded them. "Guess we better get back to work,"

Ryou was swinging his maximized flame sword once again although he accidentally dropped it at one point but was backed up by Neku. "Getting tired?" Neku asked before shooting a Soulless that approached them. "Using the 'massive hit' psych plus pyrokineses puts a slight strain on your body but I'm used to it," He replied before picking up his sword again and got back to work. _"A slight strain huh? I'm gonna have to take note of that on my pins,"_ the spiky haired boy thought.

Meanwhile, Joshua was fighting against the half Soulless known as Satoshi. Satoshi tried time and time again to get a successful strike on Joshua but he dodged them pretty easily. "Stay still you brat!" He demanded as he continued to strike although he eventually stopped to catch his breath.

"Are you done?" Joshua asked before he started to float in mid-air. Using his phone, he drew a circular blue floating seal in front of him. "See you," He grinned and hundreds of beams rushed out of the circular seal and blasted through Satoshi. The half Soulless let out a scream before vanishing into thin air.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"That went well," Joshua muttered as he turned his head to check on the rest. It seemed that they were done as well.

Suddenly, Neku's phone rang once again. It was Beat. "Hey Phones, step your ass back here! The gate's starting to close, yo!" He alerted and Neku immediately hung up and told everyone to hurry to the gate.

The group sped to the elevator and quickly headed down Pork City. Once they exited the building, they noticed that the swirling hole was shrinking which only added to their worry. "Hurry up!" Neku shouted and the group dashed towards the hole. When everyone except Neku and Joshua were through the hole, the composer suddenly sensed something which made him stop. "Joshua, what the hell are you waiting-" Joshua suddenly pushed Neku into the swirling hole. It felt like everything went in slow motion that time.

"Sorry, Neku. It looks like I still have some unfinished business to take care of here. Good luck winning the Angel's game alright?" Joshua explained before smiling one last time as Neku tried to reach his arm out to him. Unfortunately, the pull of the hole was too great and eventually took him back to the RG.

The boy was now in front of the RG Pork City once again along with everyone else. Neku tried to go back but the hole had already closed. "Neku, w-where's Joshua…?" Shiki asked trying not to think that he was left behind in the noise plane.

Neku, still kneeling on the ground, had an angered look on his face as he clenched his fists and started punching the ground. "Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit DAMNIT!!!" He shouted as he saw that his fist was already bleeding.

"JOSHUA, YOU DUMBASS!!!!"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And that ends this chapter. I seriously don't feel like spoiling anything right now so I'll leave it at that. I also don't feel like putting a random skit today since it might ruin the mood right now. Just wait for the next chapter and hope things turn out alright. Bye


	5. Trust

Before we start, I'd like to tell you that you can find sketches of Shiki and Ryou that i've done  
Search for gibder (my username at deviantart) at deviantart dot com to see the sketches although they're not so good plus the one of Shiki is still not the final sketch since it looks a bit plain. I also forgot the glassess. Anyway, unto the fic

The World Begins With You  
Chapter 5: Trust

* * *

4 days have passed since the group's attempt to rescue Joshua from the noise plane. During those last days, there had been no contact whatsoever from the higher plane nor the noise plane. Everyone could only wait for the next order.

Right now, Neku was just sitting on his desk in school recalling what had happened 4 days ago. "_Sorry Neku, it seems that I still have some unfinished business here. Good luck winning the angel's game alright?"_ That thought made him pound his still wounded fist on the desk and catch his classmates' attention. They saw how angry Neku looked and decided to leave him alone for now although they wanted to do something about his current mood.

Well, there was at least one person that decided to talk to him. "Neku…are you doing okay?" Shiki asked before thinking to herself "_Of course he's not you idiot!"_

Neku responded with complete silence as he looked out the window to see a few people on the field having P.E. class. He didn't notice, however, that his fist was bleeding once again due to the wound that hadn't completely healed yet.

"N-Neku, you're bleeding!" Shiki said as she took out some bandages from her bag. Neku refused at first but with a little pestering from Mr. Mew, he decided to give up and let her fix up his injured hand. "There, all better" She said with a smile although Neku still remained emotionless. That was until the stuffed toy decided to pester him some more.

"Can't you be a little more thankful to big sis!? Hey, I'm talking to you, porcupine!" Mr. Mew said as he jumped up on Neku's head and started messing up his hair. Eventually, Neku couldn't take it anymore and immediately grabbed the toy by its soft head.

"Do you really wanna die that badly?" He asked with an evil grin as he held the toy out the window and threatened to drop it. "I-I'm sorry! P-Please don't turn me into flat catnip!" The toy begged and Neku set it down on the table. Shiki couldn't help but chuckle at their somewhat childish behaviour.

"You two really get along well," Shiki said with a sarcastic tone which made her best friend smile just a little bit. "Hey, you smiled! You haven't done that in awhile,"

"Thanks…for trying to cheer me up. I guess I was just overreacting a little these past few days," Neku mumbled as he looked out the window again. Shiki knew that Neku still wasn't feeling so great so she tried cheering him up a bit "Well, you're not gonna just sit here all day, are you? We're already dismissed so we should go somewhere," The cheerful girl suggested and Neku agreed.

As the two walked out of Shibuya high school, they immediately caught sight of the mysterious Ryou who was looking around the campus as if he was searching for something "Ryou? What are you doing here?" Shiki asked the violet haired boy that was now looking at the main building.

"Your school…is almost like ours," He replied as he looked back at the two. Apparently, angels of archangel rank and above have enough power to actually change their frequencies by will which allows Ryou to move from plane to plane with ease. Unfortunately, archangels only have enough power to move themselves to another plane and not other people with them. Seraphs, which are the likes of Hanekoma and Joshua, have more than enough to send even a group of ten people.

When Neku finished pondering that thought, a book that Ryou was holding suddenly caught the boy's attention. "Hey Ryou, is that a manga?" He asked, seeing the drawings of different characters on it.

Ryou had a slightly embarrassed look on his face as he hid the book in his long cloak. "Y-Yeah it is,"

Seeing her mysterious friend's reaction, Shiki let out a short giggle "There's no need to be so shy. I'm kind of relieved you've taken interest in it. I thought you were the kind of guy who didn't really have any interests at all. Besides, reading manga isn't a bad thing at all,"

"So, do you read other stuff too?" Neku butted in suddenly and Ryou nodded in response. "Yeah I also like reading novels or books that I can learn from,"

Both Shiki and Neku didn't expect the guy to be such an avid reader after all. They expected him as the type of person who just had his head in the clouds all the time. Well, that was slightly correct since there were a few moments when he _did_ have his head in one "Wow, you probably read a lot more than I do. Anyway, you wanna come with us? Shiki offered and Ryou accepted.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At Mexican Dog…

Ryou and Mr. Mew were once again filling themselves up but this time with burritos. Shiki and the others had already thought up a plan so that Mr. Mew could eat without any one being suspicious of them. Shiki had an extra bag inside her bag that was just the right size for Mr. Mew to get inside and eat his food in peace. One last minute issue was the toy's noisy munching inside the bag but it was immediately resolved because it was already noisy inside the restaurant.

"Plan's working just fine," Neku remarked as he looked around and saw that no one was looking at them suspiciously. "The only problem is that I'm always gonna have to clean the bag after. I mean, who can eat that much food and not make a mess?" Shiki sighed as she peeked at the bag to see a munching Mr. Mew that smiled and waved at her.

Shiki did the opposite of smiling when she saw that the inside of the bag and Mr. Mew had ketchup, mustard, and probably other stuff all over that an actual cat shouldn't eat although Mr. Mew wasn't an _actual_ cat "Err...it's worse than i thought. Even Mr. Mew's a mess..."

"Well...at least no one's staring anymore..." Neku shifted his eyes at Ryou who wasn't actually making a mess even though he was eating just as much as the stuffed animal was.

Before anyone could take another bite of their food, their attention was suddenly drawn to Neku's cell which he immediately answered. "Hey, boss. There's been some noise activity over at Spain Hill. Think you could get over there?" Hanekoma asked Neku who told him that they were already in the area. "Oh you're already there? Great, then you can get started,"

Neku confirmed the objective then hung up. The group then headed outside Mexican Dog and started searching for any trace of the noise. Their valued possessions eventually started glowing dimly towards a girl that stood on the middle of the street. She had long dark blue hair and matching eyes.

"_Okay…focus…"_ Neku thought as everyone closed their eyes to search for the noise. Since they were no longer in the Reaper's game, the only way to combat the noise now was for the noise to come in contact with the person's 'Soul'. Once that happens, their 'Soul' becomes vulnerable and makes it possible for Neku and the other players to actually enter the victim's 'Soul' and fight the noise inside. There_ were_ a few exceptions though like Sho's taboo noise which are visible even in the RG. The objective is to erase the noise before it does any threatening damage to the person's 'Soul'.

"There!" A sort of graffiti was spotted on the victim's head. This graffiti can only be seen by the players because of their possessions that act as a bridge to different planes and also to another's 'Soul'.

Time suddenly seemed like it had stopped and there was no one around except the girl and a few noise that started absorbing something from her. Right now, Neku and the others were in a different plane called the Soul plane. Only one Soul plane exists but is like jigsaw puzzle in a way. It's like a Jigsaw puzzle because the Soul plane is made up of every single person's individual 'Soul'. They could only see the girl's soul at the time because each 'Soul' has some mysterious protection that blocks out intruders but can be broken by noise or Soulless.

The players quickly got to work on the noise which they erased fairly quickly since they've had a good amount of experience with the zodiac pins now.

When the noise was finally gone, time seemed to flow normally again which told the group that they were in the RG again. The strange graffiti was also no longer on the girl's head although she seemed spaced out. "Huh? Where am I…?" The girl mumbled as she looked around.

"Hi there, are you all right?" Shiki asked the blue haired girl who smiled at her. "I'm all right but...it feels like something's happened. My head's all fuzzy and I can't remember what I was supposed to do. The only thing I remember is that I was supposed to meet someone over at Molco,"

"_Oh yeah…I forgot that people affected by the noise would rarely have temporary memory loss. I guess this is one of those cases…"_ The orange haired teen thought to himself.

"Why don't we come with you? It might help you remember. I'm Shiki and these two are Neku and Ryou," She introduced with a welcoming smile which made her new friend smile back.

"You'd really do that for me? Thanks a lot! My name's Nana. Nana Kesaki. Nice to meet you!" The girl said as she bowed her head.

Shiki then looked at the two boys and asked if it was okay with them if they could help her. They agreed since she did lose her memory because of the noise so it was only right that they help her.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At Molco Shopping plaza…

Nana was looking around the huge mall hoping to remember what it was that she was supposed to do. "So, did you find what you were looking for yet?" Shiki asked but Nana swayed her head. "No, I'm sorry. I dragged you guys here for nothing…" She apologized which made Shiki start waving her hands.

"No, no it's okay. We decided to come here on our own so there's nothing you have to apologize for, right guys?" She replied before turning towards the two boys who quickly nodded.

"Thanks…I really appreciate it," Nana bowed her head again in gratitude before deciding to look around some more and eventually, she saw a person who suddenly jogged up her memory. "That's…I remember now. Brother!" She called out as she ran to the man who was standing a few feet away. He also had blue hair and blue eyes just like her but looked around 5 years older.

"There you are, Nana. What took you so long?" The man asked but Nana still couldn't remember that part. She got her other memories back though.

"I'm sorry, I think I got hit in the head with something because I really can't recall what took me so long. Kinda weird huh? Anyway, here you go" Nana handed her brother a bag that she was carrying before introducing Neku and the others to him.

"Oh so you helped her out when she 'forgot' what she was supposed to do? Well, thanks I appreciate it. I'm Takeshi, her big brother. I still find it weird that you forgot so suddenly but hey, strange things happen all the time," He said with a grin.

"_You have no idea…"_ Neku thought. In his life right now, strange things have always been happening so there wasn't really anything that could surprise him now. Except maybe things he would never expect.

"What the hell is that pig wearing?" Neku asked because he suddenly noticed Mr. Mew all dressed up with a shirt, some pants, a pair of sneakers, and a bandana.

"You like it? While Nana was looking around I thought I'd get Mr. Mew cleaned up. Then it hit me: Since he's talking and acting like a real person and all, why not give some real clothes? It looks cute doesn't it?" Shiki chuckled as she pushed the toy close to Neku's face.

"G-Get that thing outta my face!" Neku demanded as Nana caught sight of the adorable little stuffed toy. "Oh that's just the cutest thing I've ever seen! Mr. Mew was it? It's really nice to meet you!" She said as she took the toy's arm and started shaking it, still unaware that the thing was actually real. That was about to change in a moment though.

"Thanks! It's nice to meet you too!" Mr. Mew suddenly responded which shocked both Nana and her brother. "D-D-D-Did it just…talk?" She mumbled with a confused and surprised look. "Oops…" The toy said, obviously realizing that it had blown their cover.

Shiki immediately came up with an excuse to try and cover up for the toy's mistake. She said that it was some kind of new generation toy that had a micro chip inside it that could record voices and such. For some reason, the unorthodox excuse actually worked.

"Anyway, we should get going now, Nana. Thanks for all the help you guys. We really appreciate it," Takeshi said as he bade farewell to the group. Nana thanked the group too then followed her brother out of Molco.

"Liberation was a success then?" Ryou asked the group. Liberation is the term used when attempting to free a person from the noise possessing him/her.

"Yup, sure was. Anyway, I haven't seen Eri or the other two for that matter so I guess it's just us three. What do you wanna do now?" The brunette asked but Neku didn't respond. Actually, he looked like he was in deep thought.

"Neku…are you still thinking about what happened a few days ago? Don't worry; I'm sure Joshua didn't mean to let our effort go to waste. He's probably got something already planned in that big brain of his,"

"That's not it, Shiki. I still couldn't forgive that guy for killing me in the first place and now he manages to piss me off again. He's always just leaving all of us in the dark about everything and treats us like damn pawns in a chess game,"

Ryou, seeing the apparent agitation in Neku, tried to say something. "I've known him for a long time now. He helped me many times during my training as an angel. I owe him a lot for helping me out when I needed help. I just want to tell you, he's not a bad guy. He does things with full thought of the consequences…"

Ryou's words seemed to calm Neku down a bit. His face turned from a frown to his normal look although he still didn't say anything.

"Angel training? Do all angels have to go through that? I'm also wondering why you use the power of the pin instead of your angel powers like what Joshua does," Shiki said which made Ryou grip his chained arm again. He'd been doing that usually everytime someone talked about his more personal details "I'm sorry…I can't tell you that. Not yet anyway..." Ryou bowed his head in apology.

Neku's cell suddenly rang again which made him take it out and answer the call. "Can't you call anyone-" He was immediately interrupted by Hanekoma whose voiced seemed to be actually panicked for once. "Hey, I need you guys to get over to Shibuya station, pronto! There's a huge reading of noise over there and it's only growing! I don't why there's that much noise but I need you guys to get over there now! I've already sent Eri and the others,"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Neku hung up and alerted the group about the situation. Soon after, they quickly sprinted down to the station and got there in a few minutes. From afar, they could already hear clashing which didn't seem right. If there was noise, then they should be in the Soul plane and not the RG. Neku decided to think about that later though because the thing they needed to do now was to exterminate the noise before anything bad happened.

Inside, Beat, along with Eri, Rhyme, Sho, and a few other players were already battling the noise. There were a few injured civilians which once again confused Neku on why the noise was actually in the RG. He thought only Sho's taboo noise could do that.

"Hey Phones! They took someone and hauled over at the Station office! You guys better get your asses over there coz' we seriously got our hands tied down hard right now, yo!" Beat explained to Neku who nodded and proceeded to the station office along with Ryou and Shiki.

When they got to the huge office, they immediately saw Nana and her brother although Takeshi had already been knocked unconcious. There was also a man who had blonde hair, red eyes, and wore a white suit complete with white pants and leather shoes. He looked well groomed and his posture was like a gentleman's.

"Good evening, my guests for tonight. My name is Jean Javier and I am one of the so called Seraphs of the higher plane. It's a pleasure to finally meet you,"

The word 'Seraph' caught everyone's attention but for some reason, Ryou didn't seem to know him. "So what's a Seraph doing all the way down here?" Neku asked suspiciously which made Jean chuckle. "If I told you that, it would spoil all the fun. Unfortunately I am only here to bring you these Soulless and nothing more. If I only had the order to erase you then I would gladly do so," The blonde man snapped his fingers and a few Soulless suddenly appeared.

These Soulless looked like the ones inside the capsule that Neku saw inside the noise plane, particularly the 'Form 2' Soulless. "Well, I must bid you adieu for now. These Soulless have some business to finish with this girl over here. Ta ta!" In a blink of an eye, the Seraph vanished.

"Guys…h-help…" Nana muttered which put a worried look on everyone's face. "Hang in there! We'll save you!" Shiki assured right before the Soulless started attacking them.

These Soulless, however, seemed smarter and stronger than the usual ones. They managed to avoid most of the attacks that were dished out to them and they were giving Neku and co. a hard time. "Grrr…these guys are pretty irritating," Neku complained.

Even though he was already catching his breath, Ryou tried to stay focus as if searching for something critical. Everytime the Soulless attacked, he would just dodge and not bother trying to counter attack. He seemed to be analyzing the Soulless from top to bottom.

"Neku, Shiki, I think I found a way to beat them. These guys are 'Form 2' Soulless. They're stronger and smarter than 'Form 1' Soulless but the trade off is that they have a fatal weakness. It's like an Achilles heel. If we destroy that, we can destroy the Soulless," Ryou explained which made them wonder why he didn't tell them when the fight started.

"The reason I didn't tell you is because I wasn't sure if these really were 'Form 2' Soulless. You can determine their form by the graffiti on their back. The graffiti of forms one and two are quite similar so it took me awhile,"

"So where are these weak points that you're talking about?" Shiki asked before creating a shield to block the Soulless' attack.

"It's at the back of their heads. There's some graffiti shaped like a circle there which is different from the 'Form 1' Soulless. If you apply force to that spot, the Soulless will weaken so if you actually smash that part, the Soulless will just wither down and die. Luckily, these weak points are also blind spots for them so it'll be easier for us to hit it,"

As soon as Ryou finished, everyone immediately charged at the Soulless hoping to break those weak points. It was fairly easy for Neku because he had the 'teleport' psych which he used to circle around his opponent until he finally got a good hit on the Soulless' blind spot.

Shiki acted mostly as a distraction as she fired beams that distracted the Soulless so that Neku and Ryou could do some damage. Whenever the Soulless got close to her, she put up a shield which managed to hold them off long enough for her allies to erase them.

Ryou had good agility so he was able to hit the weak spots eventually thanks to Shiki's distractions. Eventually, the three players managed to erase all of the Soulless although it had greatly tired them out. "W-We did it…" Neku said weakly as he tried to catch his breath. Shiki immediately rushed over to Nana and Takeshi who had already gained consciousness. "Thanks…that was really scary. I owe you guys my life," Nana thanked and so did Takeshi.

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Beat and the others had also cleaned up their part but the civilians were still panicking. Thankfully, Hanekoma came to the rescue.

"Hey there guys. Great job on cleaning up this mess. Just leave the rest to me," He grinned and lifted up his cell phone and pressed a button. As soon as he did, everything seemed like it went back in time or something. The station was all fixed up; the civilians were all healed and acted like nothing happened which of course confused Neku and the others.

Seeing the looks he put on their faces, Hanekoma let out a laugh and put the phone back in his pocket. "Remember the thing I put in your phone that made you see what happened like hours before the picture on the phone occurred? Well, I put some serious adjustments in it which makes my phone actually put the whole area back in that time. The only ones that won't be affected are players so you guys don't have to worry. Unfortunately, I don't want this falling into the wrong hands so this is just for me,"

All envy aside, Neku wanted to ask Hanekoma who that Jean Javier was or why they targeted Nana. Hanekoma could only tell Neku the same thing that Jean actually said; that he was a Seraph and nothing more. He couldn't answer Neku's second question though.

Speaking of Nana, apparently she still remembered what happened even though Hanekoma did that phone-time machine trick. Her brother had already forgotten what had happened though. "Well this is unexpected. Well, I guess we have to tell you but please…keep this a secret between us okay, miss?" Hanekoma said with that usual calm composure

Although it took her some time for all the info to actually sink in, she eventually got what they were telling her. Everything that had happened made it way easier for her to believe but she might've believed it anyway since she was pretty naïve.

"So…why do you think it didn't affect me?" Nana asked but Hanekoma couldn't come up with an answer. Finally, her brother called her attention. It seemed he was getting on a train since he had a ticket and some other stuff too.

"Nana…I'm going now. Take care of yourself okay?" Takeshi asked with a smile making Nana smile back. "I will. You take care of yourself too, okay big bro and promise me that you'll come back," Nana said before receiving a warm hug from her brother. "I promise I'll come back and when I do, promise me you'll be waiting for me okay, Nana?" He asked and Nana nodded with a smile as she felt a tear drop from her eye.

After one last look, Takeshi smiled and got on the train which started to move. As it continued to move, Takeshi and Nana continued to smile at each other until the train finally disappeared from sight.

"Nana, are you okay?" Shiki asked with a worried expression. Nana replied with a smile and a nod before Neku asked what the whole thing was about.

"You see…my brother's really good at baseball. He's been playing baseball even before I was born and he's loved it ever since. Now, some college in the U.S. saw some potential in him and decided to give him a scholarship. They think he might even make it in the national league so now, that train that he's on will take him to the airport. I…don't know when he's gonna come back but…I know he will because he promised me…and I trust him," Nana finished with a smile.

"'_Trust'…there's that word again. I guess…I haven't been so trusting lately. What Joshua did…he probably did it for a good reason and I…I guess I should trust that,"_ Neku thought with a small smile which Shiki saw.

"Hey, you smiled again. What's up?" Shiki asked as Neku continued to smile. "I've decided…I'm gonna put more trust in Joshua…" He silently announced which made Shiki giggle. "That's good. It's good to have trust in others. That's what makes friends what they are. Well…that's what I think anyway,"

Neku smiled one more time before looking away from her. "Shiki…thanks," He mumbled as he walked out of the train station. He'd mumbled it so softly that she didn't even hear it but that was Neku's plan anyway.

"Hey, wait up!" Shiki called out as she happily followed Neku out of the train station.

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And that ends chapter 5 of TWBWY. Hope you enjoyed it although I think I might have rushed it a bit so sorry if it does look a little rushed. Anyway, here's the random skit for this chapter.

*Shiki and Neku are at a shopping mall looking around*

Shiki: Hey Neku, which shirt looks better on Mr. Mew?

Neku: Do I seriously have to do this…?

Shiki: Yes you do. I need a boy's opinion since I need boy's clothing for Mr. Mew

Neku: How do you even know it's a boy anyway?

Shiki: Well his name's Mr. Mew right?

Neku: Well the conductor's name was Megumi. Does that sound like a boy's name to you?

*In a different place, Megumi suddenly sneezes*

Konishi: Is something wrong sir?

Megumi: It's nothing. I think I just have a cold

Konishi: You know, they say that sneezing sometimes is a signal that people are talking about you

Megumi: I don't see anything about me to talk about though

Konishi: Well…there _is_ your name…

Megumi: *Goes to a dark corner and falls into deep depression*

Konishi: Perhaps I shouldn't have brought that up…


	6. Facing your inner noise part 1

Hey guys I'm back with a new chapter. Thanks to everyone who's read this far and I hope you'll continue reading. Nothing much to say other than that especially because I don't wanna spoil anything. Anyway, here we go.

The World Begins With You

Chapter 6: Facing your inner noise *part 1*

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"Got you now" Neku grinned before teleporting behind a few noise and quickly shooting them with his shockwave-like gun. The noise immediately turned into blurry images and then faded away into the air.

"Did we get em' all?" Shiki asked as she looked around an empty Udagawa where the battle had taken place. Her question was answered when they were transferred back to the RG Udagawa from the empty soul plane.

The victim finally snapped out of his trance-like state and continued on to what he was originally supposed to do before the noise attacked him.

"You know…I just realized this now but its like were running some kind of charity group by doing this," Neku sighed as he removed the headphones from his head and put them around his neck.

"Well then that's a good thing isn't it?" Shiki started as she picked up her stuffed cat which had just turned back from a pin. Neku sighed again at that comment. "Well…I just wish we could at least get a 'thanks' from the people we help but obviously they don't even remember what happened…"

"How about Nana? She was thanking us all day yesterday, remember?" Shiki said but Neku quickly fired back. "But that's a rare case _plus_ we helped her even after the noise attacked. I don't think we'll ever get a 'thanks' from victims we just save from noise,"

They spent the next few minutes arguing about who was right or wrong with some random topics in between. Mr. Mew eventually started to fall asleep but was immediately woken up when Shiki accidentally dropped him but still continued to argue with Neku.

"Geez just stop it already, you two" Mr. Mew demanded but he was answered back with a "Shut it, pig!" from Neku which immediately made him swipe his claw on Neku's face again. "Stop calling me that, Porcupine!"

This time, Neku and Mr. Mew were the ones arguing. For like 10 seconds they kept on yelling "Pig!" and "Porcupine!" at each other until Shiki finally realized how stupid she looked when she was the one arguing. Luckily, not many people come to Udagawa so there wasn't really anyone around.

"Okay that's enough arguing for one day!" Shiki ordered as she covered both their mouths with each hand. Neku and Mr. Mew also realized how stupid they looked and eventually apologized. Usually, Neku was the voice of logical reason but not right now it seemed.

Shiki quickly decided to change the topic. "Speaking of Nana, Mr. Hanekoma made her a player now too right?" She asked and was answered with a nod.

"Yeah, he did. She said she really wanted to help out because she didn't want anything like that to happen to anyone else. Pretty determined statement if you ask me," Neku commented and Shiki agreed with that.

They were drawn out of that topic when Neku's phone suddenly rang. "Hey Phones, it's Mr. H. We just got word on a new order from the higher plane so I need you guys to get here as soon as you can. See you there"

Neku hung up with an anxious look on his face. "Neku? You look like you're just about to play a finals match on a tin pin tournament. Did something happen?"

He quickly explained the situation which made Shiki anxious too. What they were really hoping for was some info on Joshua but they knew that it would just be another round in the Angel's game. They still had hope though.

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A few minutes later, Neku and the rest of the players under Hanekoma were gathered at the RG Wildkat. It seemed that Hanekoma didn't need the other Wildkat from the parallel world anymore since he put up some protective barrier that was supposed to ward off noise and Soulless alike.

"So what's the scoop, yo? Anything new on lil' prissy kid?" Beat asked which told Neku that he wasn't the only one worried about him.

"Unfortunately…no, I don't. The good thing is, however, is that the Angels don't know either so at least we're both at a loss. It seems that we both can't figure out when exactly the gate to the noise plane will open again,"

"_Darn…I guess I can't really rush things…"_ Neku thought calmly as Hanekoma began his explanation. "The next thing we're supposed to do is to go to one of the parallel worlds and meet up with one of their Seraphs. His name is Jean Javier and he'll be giving you instructions on what to do once your there,"

The name that Hanekoma mentioned immediately made its way into Neku's memory. "Jean Javier…that was the guy we met during the Shibuya station incident a day ago," He mentioned and everyone remembered the Seraph's face.

"Yup that's the guy alright. I've dealt with him in the past and let me give you a little tip…that guy…is pretty devious. He's got as many tricks up his sleeve as there are stars in the sky and I mean that almost literally so be careful alright?" The man with shades warned.

"Well there ain't no stars in the sky right now so we'll be just fine, yo!" Beat interrupted. For some reason, that comment actually made sense in a way but yet…was still something only Beat would probably say.

Before Sho could comment on how stupid and illogical his statement was, Hanekoma immediately raised a hand at him and spoke before Sho could.

"Here's the thing…the Seraphs also have another order which is rather specific. They only want Neku and Shiki to take part in this round.. I'm thinking it's got something to do with being players from the last game but hey, it's just a hunch. I mean, Beat and Rhyme were players too but they only want you two involved"

That explanation left everyone wondering what exactly the Angels were planning for that round. Aside from the players that were to take part in the round, the others only had to continue with the noise erasure around Shibuya.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Since it was just a parallel world, they didn't need the use of Pork City's gate to other planes. The problem was that a specific parallel world was given to them so Hanekoma had to be the one to bring them there.

Before he took them to the parallel world, he gave them different outfits complete with wigs which confused the two at first sight. "Uh…I thought we were supposed to go to a parallel world. I didn't think you meant a circus," Neku joked half serious.

"You got it all wrong, Phones. In the Parallel World, you'll most likely see yourselves there so what do you think would happen if people saw an exact copy of you?" Hanekoma replied. Obviously, people would freak out and knock themselves on the face just to make sure they weren't dreaming.

Shiki's outfit was more or less normal; a normal looking wig, normal looking jeans and other normal looking stuff. Neku's outfit would've pass as normal if it weren't for one tiny error.

"WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO WEAR A PINK WIG!?!?" Neku demanded as he pointed to the light pink hair which now rested on Neku's head. Not only was it pink but it rather melon shaped as well.

Shiki and Mr. Mew were having a hard time holding their laughter as they stared at Neku's 'fashionable' wig.

"It's okay Neku…it isn't…that bad…really," Shiki assured although her held in laughter said otherwise. "Sorry boss. That was the only one they had left. Unless you wanna use this sweet looking rainbow colored afro I got from a Halloween party," Hanekoma said as he held up something that Neku would rather use as firewood than a wig.

Neku had no other choice but to wear the wig so that he did. Hanekoma then proceeded to transfer them to the parallel world that they were assigned to.

The man snapped his fingers and a light dome surrounded the group once again. As soon as it did, Hanekoma stepped out of the dome and waved at the two. "Sorry you two but this is as far as I can go. We're leaving the rest up to you two. Don't lose now ya hear?"

Neku and Shiki both nodded as the dome slowly faded away from sight. Eventually, they also faded away from sight leaving Hanekoma who walked back to Wildkat with a smile.

Neku and Shiki appeared in front of Wildkat once again but this time they were inside the parallel world. When the dome finally disappeared, Neku's phone beeped. "A text message?" He mumbled as he took out his phone.

'Meet me at the scramble. You're given 10 seconds. Fail and face erasure'

"What!? 10 seconds!? We gotta get there-" Neku was interrupted by the sound of his phone beeping again. "Another one?"

'Just kidding. LOL you're not given a time limit but meet me at the scramble anyway. See you there. Best regards, Jean Javier"

Shiki let out a deep sigh. She really thought they only had 10 seconds to get to a place about 15 minutes away. "That nearly gave me a heart attack. Now I really believe that Jean guy is just like Mr. H said…"

Neku put the phone back in his pocket and sighed as well. "We should get going now. I don't feel like hanging around here for too long," He said as he started for the exit with Shiki following behind.

They weren't at the scramble yet but they stopped mid-way because a certain person caught their attention. He had orange spiky hair, blue headphones around his neck and blue eyes. "Well…that's me alright" Neku said before hearing the parallel world Neku mumble something to himself.

"Ah, another beautiful day! It makes me just wanna smell that fresh and forget all about my emo urges!. Now, I need to head over to Molco right away to enter the new Tin Pin slam-offs. I WILL be the greatest slammer who ever lived!" He concluded before speeding off like lightning.

Neku had an expression on his face that was a mixture of confusion, humiliation, and maybe a little irritation. "Is he…high or something? Last time I checked…I'd rather shoot myself in the head than say anything like that,"

"And did he just say…emo urges? That's like…totally the least thing I expected you to say," Shiki added trying to hold her laughter in once again.

An irritated Neku decided to leave his other self alone "Well it's _not_ me so let's go and let emo boy do what he wants. Geez…10 minutes in this place and I already feel like going back,"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After a good five minutes, they reached the ever busy and crowded scramble crossing. Neku and Shiki looked around the area for awhile but they couldn't find the Seraph anywhere. That was when Neku's phone beeped once again.

'Face yourself. Fail and face your own demise. I'm serious this time. Good luck to you. Yours truly, Seraph Jean Javier'

Neku put the phone back in his pocket with a confused look on his face. "Face…ourselves? What does he mean by-" At that instant, Neku sensed something approaching and dodged a sudden black beam just in time. The beam looked awfully familiar to Shiki's attack.

"Huh? Th-that wasn't me Neku! I swear!" Shiki said as she held up Mr. Mew who was still in a stuffed toy form and therefore couldn't possibly have fired that.

Neku and Shiki looked around to see that all the people had vanished out of sight and instead, two figures stood before them. One of them looked exactly like Neku and the other looked exactly like Shiki.

"I guess she was the one that fired that. Question is…why are they attacking us?" Neku asked as he kept his eyes focused on their enemy's movements.

The Neku and Shiki copies looked just like their counterparts except for the fact that they had red eyes and had this kind of Aura around them that had a killing intent that would even scare death itself. This Neku looked nor seemed nothing like the Neku that ran of to Molco a little while ago.

"If it's a fight these guys want then that's what they'll get" Neku put on his headphones and focused the energy on his hands but much to his surprise, nothing happened. "I-It's not working?" Neku muttered before hearing his phone beep again.

'Just so you know, I've rendered your abilities useless for this fight. Enjoy!'

Neku angrily put the phone back in his pocket and took the headphones off. "Damnit! How the hell are we supposed to fight like this!?" Before he had time to complain anymore, the imitations charged at them again.

Thankfully, physical strength wasn't something you could take away just like that so Neku and Shiki were still able to dodge whatever came at them. They were still in a hopeless situation though because that was the only thing they could do.

Neku didn't notice that he had already split up with Shiki due to all the moving that they did. _"Darn…this isn't good. I wonder how she's doing…" _He asked himself before taking a kick to his ribs which sent him flying through a window of one of the buildings.

Blood was now dripping from Neku's head as he got up slowly to see the 'impostor' standing in front of him. To his surprise, the 'impostor' actually started to speak.

"I am you, and you are me. We are one in the same didn't you know?" He said with a grin. His voice sounded like Neku's voice but was slightly distorted which irritated the real Neku. "Yeah I realized that, dumbass!" Neku charged at the copy only to be thrown to a nearby wall.

"You're the one who doesn't get it. I came directly from you. I'm that part of you that you just can't get rid off. Think, Neku. The noise live on one purpose. Do you know what that is, hmm Neku? The copy asked before dodging a punch from Neku and slamming him down on the ground with one hand.

"The noise live so that they could one day become what they want to become most: Human. You see, the noise are born from three ways. The first was by the reapers in the reapers game. The second was from noise summoning graffiti, and the last…is by the 'souls' of people,"

Neku's eyes widened at the last way that the copy Neku said. "From…my 'soul'? Wait…how do you know all this?" He asked his other self who grinned.

"Oh that? Isn't it obvious? I was born..." He began as he lifted Neku by the neck and lifted him up. "From _you_, Neku Sakuraba. I came from _your_ 'Soul'. Do you get it now?" Neku's jaw dropped from surprise but that was removed when he was thrown into another wall.

"And once I kill you, I'm gonna be taking your body. We noise need 'Soul' and bodies to evolve you know and once your friend dies, her body will be taken over by her noise too,"

"_Tch…Shiki…please be okay…"_ Neku thought as his counterpart walked over to him slowly with a grin on his face.

"Well…I think it's about time I put an end to this. Goodbye…my other half,"

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And that about wraps it up for this chapter. I've got a few ideas for the next part but I'm still thinking it through. It's getting a bit harder to connect the plots together but I think I'll manage. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'll see you soon.


	7. facing your inner noise part 2

Okay so this is a really fast update. I usually don't do it this fast but I just couldn't help myself. I seriously enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you enjoy reading it. This chapter has the most fluff yet of all the others. Speaking of chapters, I might re-edit chapter 1 because looking back, I'm not sure I did a good job on it. Just tell me if you want the chapter as it is or if you want me to change it.

The World Begins With You

Chapter 7: Facing your inner noise: Part 2

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As Neku continued to fight his battle, Shiki had her own battle to fight as well. Just like Neku, the person standing in front of Shiki was also born from her own 'Soul'. This never before faced type of noise now threatens to kill and take over their counterpart's bodies.

"This…isn't looking good," Said a tired Shiki. "I don't stand a chance against her like this…all I can do is keep defending but then what?"

Her noise counterpart walked slowly to her with a grin. "Is that it? Come on, give me more of a challenge! If you don't, I might as well kill you right now!" The noise dashed towards Shiki and struck with a kick which she managed to block. However, she was unable to block another kick which struck her ribs and threw her off balance.

The noise then fired another black beam from her hand which Shiki dodged but not completely. The attack seemed to have scratched her shoulder which made her flinch slightly.

"You know what, maybe I won't kill you just yet. Why don't we play some mind games before you die. Well, here we go!" As soon as the noise Shiki finished, everything became black. The whole area was now surrounded in complete darkness and left the real Shiki floating in it.

"Wh-What happened? Mr. Mew, where'd you go?" A confused Shiki asked as she looked around the dark space that surrounded her. Mr. Mew and her noise counterpart were gone as well.

This dark space was like a bad dream to her. It reminded her of a lot of things especially her past. Feelings of loneliness engulfed her as she continued to float alone in the dark space. "Where…is everyone…" She mumbled as she gripped her scratched shoulder which started hurting.

Eventually, the area started to become brighter. Her surroundings were rather blurry at first but eventually started to clear up and become more visible. Shiki finally felt her feet touch the ground and she caught sight of a very familiar place. In front of her was a school campus. There were elementary kids present who were playing around be it tag, or other games that little kids would play.

"This is…" She began "My old school…"

Suddenly, another person appeared in the distance. She was alone and looked rather depressed and lonely. She had brown hair, glasses, and a green shirt.

"Is that…me? But…how?" The sight of her past self brought back a few memories to Shiki's mind. Most of them memories of loneliness and times when she tried talking to people but just being ignored..

"Why…is this happening…?" Shiki gripped her shoulder even tighter before everything vanished into darkness once again. Shiki was once again in that black space. After a moment, she heard a voice. To her surprise, it was her noise counterpart talking to her.

"You remember that don't you? All those times when you felt so alone? All that negativity you had in the past? Yeah, I'm sure you remember that quite clearly. You know how I know that? Well…that's because I'm part of who you are. I know how you think. I know how you feel. All those feelings are what created me,"

Shiki closed her eyes and hoped that all of those memories would just go away. Those memories were something she thought was better without. "Stop…stop it…" She mumbled as she shook her head to brush away that thought.

"You can't hide from what's already happened. The past isn't something you can escape. All these memories…all these feelings…are a part of you. There's no use in running away from it,"

Suddenly, another person appeared in front of Shiki. She had pink hair, a red shirt, a green skirt, brown boots and a familiar star shaped hair pin that rested on her hair.

"Eri…is that you? Eri!" She called out as she ran to her friend. However, she was blocked mid-way by a crowd of people that suddenly appeared before her.

"Eri, Eri! It's me, Shiki!" She shouted as she tried digging through the crowd of people but to no avail. From a distance, Shiki could see Eri talking with a few of her friends. They seemed to be having a good time. They were chatting, laughing, telling stories, and just plain having fun.

Shiki's eyes were starting to well up with tears as her knees dropped to the ground. "Why…why…why can't she hear me?" She said as she slammed her hands on the ground and stared at them.

The voice of her counterpart spoke to her once again. "Why? Because she just doesn't care, you idiot! That's how people are. Sooner or later, they crave for something new be it material or not. How are you so sure that your friendship with your so called friends will last? How do you know they won't just throw you away like yesterday's garbage, huh?"

"I…I…" Shiki couldn't really talk anymore. Not because she was crying but because she just didn't want to anymore. She couldn't take it anymore. Everything was just rushing into her head and it was all hard to bear.

"See? You can't even answer me! That proves how uncertain you are! Heh, you don't even deserve to live. You probably should've just been erased in the reaper's game, you good for nothing garbage!" The voice said before letting out a laugh that rung in Shiki's ears.

"Please…stop it already…please…I'm begging you" Shiki pleaded as her tears flowed like water from a faucet. The voice only continued to laugh as Shiki covered her ears and shook her head continuously.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Suddenly, one more voice called out to her. It was a boy's voice. It sounded very familiar and was easily recognizable.

"That's not the Shiki I know. I thought you were stronger than this," The voice spoke which made Shiki stand up and look around.

"Neku…I can hear you. Where are you, Neku?"

The noise counterpart of Shiki wondered where that voice came from. She knew that voice wasn't her doing and was coming from another source but she couldn't find where that source was.

Finally, Neku appeared right in front of Shiki. She didn't know whether or not this Neku was just one of those images that her counterpart brought up but for some reason, it seemed genuine.

"Neku…is that really you?" She asked the boy in front of her who nodded. "The one and only. Now, let's get outta here," Neku said as he reached his hand out to her although she stepped away from him and looked down to the ground.

"I…don't wanna go back. I can't go back…" Shiki replied which made Neku ask her why. "If what she said was true…then I don't want to go back. Maybe…I should just let her take over me. It's just…not worth it,"

"Shiki, all she's trying to do is psyche you out. None of that it true. Only an idiot would fall for those-" Shiki immediately interrupted him with some words of her own.

"What do you know!? What I felt back then…all that jealously! All that sadness! How would you know anything about it!?" She shouted as Neku worryingly looked at her. Her eyes continued to tear and her voice was becoming horse from all the shouting and crying.

"You were the one who wanted to avoid everyone! You weren't like me! You didn't want friends like I did! You didn't care if people didn't like you or if people had bad opinions about you! You just didn't care about-" This time, Shiki was the one interrupted. Not by words but by a quick slap to her cheek.

"I may not know that much yet about being a great friend or what it means to feel that much envy about someone…but," Neku began.

"What I do know is that everything you're saying is all just bull. I was alone too, just like you. I may not have cared before but I regret that now. Having friends that care about you…friends that have your back in whatever you do. You were the ones that taught me that," Shiki's eyes widened at hearing that statement.

"You've got us now. We're in this together and I'm promising you right now that we'll never throw you away or ignore you. You're…not going back to the old Shiki are you?" Neku asked with a smile.

The surroundings of Shiki changed once again. This time, it was the scene at the end of the first week of the reaper's game. Shiki saw herself talking to Neku before she was taken away as Neku's second entrance fee.

"_Shiki, you go on ahead"_

"_No way!"_

"_Just go! Trust me"_

"_I'm not leaving without you, Neku!"_

"_I'm entering the game again so let Neku-"_

"_Shiki…don't worry about me"_

"_But Neku-"_

"_Didn't you swear you'd go back and see Eri again?"_

"………"

_I don't even know if I have anything to go back to. You do, Shiki"_

"_Neku…"_

"_You're not gonna start slipping back now, are you?"_

"_Huh?"_

"_Back to the old Shiki"_

"_N-no…"_

"_I'm sorry, Neku…thank you. I'll go back…back to the real me"_

After that, the vision ended but instead of the background reverting to the same dark space, it became a bright space filled with white light. It was a warm light.

"I…remember" Shiki began. "You're right. I'll never go back to the old Shiki again. I promised myself I wouldn't"

"And there you go" Neku said which made her remember that was the same phrase he said during the end of the first week.

"Now, let's go back" Neku said as he reached out his hand one more time to Shiki who paused for a moment but took his hand eventually.

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Shiki's vision started to blur and everything around her started to disappear. She was scared at first but that changed when she realized that she was back in the real world. In front of her were both Neku and Mr. Mew.

"I was so worried about you, big sis!" Mr. Mew cried out as he jumped into Shiki's arms which made the girl chuckle. "Thanks, I missed you too"

She turned her eyes to Neku who looked a bit different right now. He had red eyes and a yellow graffiti-like tattoo on his left arm. His left hand had turned into a yellow gauntlet with sharp finger claws although his right hand stayed the same.

Neku saw the confusion in Shiki's eyes and immediately explained. "Oh this? Yeah, I got this from my other self I guess. Before I explain, you better take care of things here first" He suggested as he pointed at Shiki's counterpart who stood still with a frown.

After a moment, the noise started to speak. "You…I guess…you don't need me anymore" She mumbled sadly as she started to walk away but was stopped by Shiki.

"Wait just a minute. After what you did…I kind of realized that the past is also something important. I'm still kinda angry at you but…at the same time, I'm kind of thankful. Because of you, I realized that I shouldn't push away my past, or any feelings I had in the past because it's like you said, it's all a part of me.

Shiki reached out her hand to her counterpart which what seemed like a signal for a handshake. Her noise counterpart hesitated at first but eventually shook her hand. As soon as she did. Bright lights surrounded the noise until it became a stream of blue lights which flowed unto Shiki.

"Same thing that happened to me" Neku muttered before both of their phones beeped.

'Congratulations to both of you. You faced your inner noise and passed with flying colors. I hope we get a chance to play again sometime. Truly yours, Seraph Jean Javier'

Neku put his phone back and sighed. "That little son of a…" He mumbled as Shiki noticed that he was still in that unusual form.

"So Neku, what happened to you anyway?" She asked Neku who started at his transformed left arm.

"Well…long story short, me and the little Neku noise inside me are on the same page now. I don't really feel like talking anymore about it so let's leave it at that. Anyway, it's about time I changed back," Neku said as a light surrounded him and changed him back to how he was originally supposed to look like.

The words that Neku said to Shiki during their time in that black space still lingered in her head and in her heart. It would be something she wouldn't forget anytime soon.

"You know, giving great advice like that wasn't like you at all., Neku. It's like a side of you I've never seen before," She teased which made Neku frown at her.

"Is that any way to thank someone who just saved your life? Anyway, I called Mr. H. He should be here anytime s-" Before Neku could finish, he felt a warm embrace which made him turn crimson red. Actually, Shiki did that unconsciously without even thinking first.

"I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't-know what I was doing!" Shiki apologized as she backed up and started waving her hands back and forth, finally realizing what she did.

"I-It's okay…" The boy responded as he looked in another direction in order to hide his red face.

"Hey, how about me? Don't I get a hug, big sis?" Mr. Mew asked with puppy eyes which made Shiki smile and pick up the stuffed animal. "Of course! Come here, you" She said as she hugged the toy tightly.

After a couple of minutes, Hanekoma arrived and took them back to the RG where they explained what happened during the round. Now, Neku possess a new and mysterious power obtained from his other self. He still doesn't know whether or not it will be able to help him but he has a good feeling it will.

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whew, I still can't believe I managed to write this in one day. I guess I just got really interested in this chapter. Anyway, here's a hint (can't really call it a hint though) on Neku. The new form he got is his noise form which will be explained a bit next chapter. The next chapter is called "A cat's memories" so you might know who exactly is the star in the coming chapter. Peace out


	8. A cat's memories

I'm back with a new chap. Well, I've just started reading Tenthlttr's fic and I've gotta say; that fic's some great stuff. I really like all the fluff in it. It's also sparked up some inspirational flame in my mind (Inspirational flame…that's the cheesiest thing I've ever said) for my next chapter. I've also been thinking of re-writing the other chapters because i was reading through them the other day and realized that I kinda made them too complicated. I'm not gonna change the story plot. Just the way it's written. I'll try making it more readable.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

The World Begins With You

Chapter 8: A cat's memories

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At Molco…

"Grr…I can't believe this is happening…" An irritated Neku complained right before seeing a pin fly out of sight. Apparently, he was playing tin pin and was losing. His opponent had 3 pins left while Neku had just 1 pin left. Much to his surprise, his opponent was a certain cap-wearing girl that seemed to be enjoying herself at the moment.

"Hey Neku, you've only got one left," Shiki said with a grin which irritated her opponent even more. It seemed that everyone was rooting for Shiki at the moment and not for Neku. "Go get 'em Shiki! You the man- I mean girl, yo!" Beat said as the pins started clashing once again.

Amazingly, Neku managed to keep his pin alive for about 5 minutes. It seemed that he really didn't want to lose, especially not to a person that just started learning how to play tin pin slammer. Now, Shiki was down to two pins while Neku's one single pin still stayed strong;

Shiki made her pin jump and use a diving trick but Neku used a spike ball trick and managed to counter and stun Shiki's pin. "Say goodbye!" Neku exclaimed as his pin struck Shiki's pin. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough to knock the pin out. Neku made his pin charge one more time which was a careless move because Shiki in turn used her spike ball to counter.

"Heh, you're the one that should be saying goodbye!" Shiki said before making her pin slide behind Neku's pin and slammed it right out of the play area.

Eri and Rhyme went over to Shiki and raised her arm in victory. "And that means that Shiki's the winner! Congratz!"

Shiki started jumping up and down excitedly yelling "I won! I won!" while Neku felt his eye twitch in irritation. "I…lost…to a total noob who just started a few minutes ago?!?!"

Beat moved beside Neku and gave him a strong pat to the back. "Tough luck, Phones! Maybe you'll get her next time," He said which made Neku tug him right in the ribs. "It ain't funny. Dude, I just lost to someone who just started playing a few minutes ago. I've been playing ever since the reaper's game. If that's not screwed than I dunno what is"

"Whoa, chill out, man. Ever heard of beginner's luck? Maybe tha's how she won or maybe she cruncked up her pins or 'sometin, yo?" Beat said which made Neku think. "Yeah, that's gotta be it. She probably tweaked up her pins. A person with 6 months experience can't just lose to someone who's only had 30 minutes worth of experience,"

Over at the audience seats were Ryou and Mr. Mew who applauded Shiki while munching on some kind of chocolate bar. Ryou was quietly reading a book which seemed to be another manga. A few minutes ago he was reading some book on the structure of machines or something like that.

"Hey, couid I read?" Mr. Mew asked Ryou who nodded and lent the stuffed cat the book. Mr. Mew turned to a random page and saw a man with a blue uniform, weird looking gloves and short black hair. On the next page, the man snapped his fingers and an explosion was seen on the next frame.

"Wow…if I could do something like that then I could protect big sis even more," The stuffed cat said which made Ryou smile a bit.

"You…really care about her, don't you?" Ryou asked Mr. Mew who nodded with a smile. "Yup, of course I do. I don't know why…but it feels like I've known her for a long time now. I don't even know why I call her big sis. It kinda just happens," The toy explained as it happily wagged its tail.

"I see. I don't really know…what's its like to really care about someone that much," Ryou mumbled as he gripped his chained arm again. Mr. Mew stared at the chain for a moment then smiled at him. "I'm sure you'll find it" The cat began which caught Ryou's attention. "I'm sure you'll find it someday,"

Ryou put his hand on the stuffed toy's head and started petting it as if it was a real animal. "Thanks…you're a good cat," He said which made Mr. Mew smile and wag its tail faster. "Finally, someone else that thinks I'm a cat and not a pig,"

Neku and the rest were now walking on the streets while talking about Neku's recent loss at the hands of Shiki. "I know you tweaked those pins," Neku assumed as he tried to take the pins that Shiki was holding. "No, I didn't. You're just a sore loser, that's all," She replied happily as she put the pins in her bag.

Even though Shiki refused, Neku still remained suspicious. He had a good hunch that she modified her pins. He just didn't know how to find out if that was true or not.

Suddenly, Shiki's phone rang and when she looked at the phone's screen she saw Nana's name on it. "Shiki, its Nana. C-Could you help me with something? I-It's my cat. He's gone missing and I need some help finding him," The blue haired girl begged. Without a second thought, Shiki agreed to help. When she told the others about it, they quickly agreed to help too.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the Scramble Crossing…

"So, you found a stray cat a few minutes ago and decided to take care of it. How did you lose him anyway?" Shiki asked Nana who had just wiped tears away from her eyes. "Well…I was gonna buy food for it so I went to a convenience store. They recently made a 'no pets allowed' rule so I told him to just wait for me outside. When I came back, he was gone"

Everyone sighed when they heard that explanation. You obviously can't just tell a cat to wait up for you and hope that it understands what you're saying. It's like telling a pig to fly. Even Beat wasn't dumb enough to try something like that. Well…_maybe_ he wasn't.

"Anyway" Shiki began "We need to find him right away. Is there anything you can tell us that might help?" She asked, hoping to find a few clues.

"Well, he's color black, has a unique mark on his forehead, and he's got a wounded left hind leg," Nana explained which gave Shiki the idea that since the cat was wounded, it couldn't have gotten far so the group decided to check all nearby locations

Beat and Rhyme checked out Center Street, Ryou and Eri decided to check around the 104 building, and Neku, along with Shiki and Nana, decided to check near the statue of Hachiko.

After a few minutes of searching, they still found nothing; No trace of the cat whatsoever which made the group wonder if the cat was already long gone.

When all hope of finding the lost cat seemed dim, another _cat_ was about to spark a little hope in the search.

"Hey, I think I smell something…" Mr. Mew said before jumping from Shiki's arms unto the ground and started sniffing around. "This way!"

The stuffed cat started for the statue of Hachiko and began sniffing again until it finally stopped and picked up a certain small bell with a small strap attached to it. "This is…" Nana began as she scanned the object "The bell I tied around Puffy's neck!"

"Uhh…Puffy?" Neku muttered which made Nana blush in embarrassment "Th-that's what I decided to call it. I-Its fur's kinda puffy so…" Neku was about to comment again but was elbowed by Shiki before he could. "Puffy's a good name…isn't it, Neku?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's a great name. Anyway, since he managed to find something attached to the cat, you think maybe he could trace the cat itself?" Neku asked Shiki who in turn asked Mr. Mew. The stuffed cat sniffed the small bell then looked around until he finally chose the direction of the west exit bus terminal.

"I smell him over here!" Mr. Mew immediately ran off in the direction that he chose with Neku and co. following closely behind. When they got there, Mr. Mew paused for awhile to sniff around the area. As he continued to search, a thought suddenly popped up in Neku's head. "Hey…isn't a dog supposed to be the one that sniffs stuff? If I remember correctly, pigs and cats don't sniff bombs in hotels," He commented although he never did get an answer.

"_Nice talking"_ He thought before Mr. Mew directed them to the train station. When they got there, Mr. Mew once again started sniffing although this time, Shiki had to explain to all the suspecting people that it was some kind of new toy.

"The scent's getting closer! Over here!" The cat rushed over to a corner of the station and pointed at a thrash can that rested there. "Behind that!"

Neku bent over to the thrash can and reached his hand out to whatever was behind it. As soon as his hand touched it, there was an irritated expression on his face. Whatever that thing was, it definitely wasn't a cat. He slowly pulled it out and looked at it before showing the rest what it was.

"You were leading us…to this?" Neku said with a tone full of sarcasm. The rest felt their eyes twitch when they caught sight of a half-eaten hotdog that Neku

soon threw it where it belonged.

"Th-that can't be right! I-I followed the scent of the bell exactly to this place! It's supposed to be right here!" The toy yelled as it waved its arms back and forth.

The three players were about to give up when Nana suddenly saw something other than the half-eaten hotdog which was now in the thrash can.

"Hey, look at this" She signalled the rest to look at a bandage which she held up for everyone to see. "I wrapped this around Puffy's leg earlier. I guess we're still on the trail after all" She said with a smile which made Mr. Mew feel like he'd just cheated death.

After a few more minutes of searching and sniffing, Mr. Mew finally managed to trace the scent where it rightfully belonged. In front of them now were a cat and a little girl with blonde hair. Nana confirmed that the cat was Puffy although she also confirmed that the little girl was being possessed by noise.

"We gotta take care of this first" Neku suggested as he wore his headphones on his head. The group then proceeded to the soul plane of the victim where they immediately saw multiple blue sharks swimming around the area.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Neku fired a few shots at the sharks who dodged them by diving under the ground. He fired even more shots but the sharks just moved too fast for Neku to get a good hit. "This thing won't stop moving,"

"Hey, Neku, why don't you use that new thing you got the other day?" Shiki asked but Neku just sighed. "Sorry, I can't change into it anytime I want. I can only change back from it whenever I want,"

""Whaa? Are you serious?" Shiki said right before seeing an ice pillar appear right in front of her which blocked the shark just in time from eating her alive. Shiki recognized that attack and turned around to see Eri who smiled and waved. Along with her were Beat, Ryou, and Rhyme.

"Shiki, you better stay focused. You don't wanna be its next meal, do you?" Eri chuckled which made Shiki blush and apologize. Eri seemed to be saving Shiki a lot these past few days although Eri never seemed to mind.

The group decided to split up and fight the sharks separately. It was pretty easy for Ryou, Nana, and Eri because they already had what they needed: the water that surrounded the sharks. Nana had a zodiac of thunderbolt so all she had to do was zap the water and the shark fried up as fast as instant noodles.

Even though Ryou's main element was fire, the flames were so strong that they engulfed the shark in seconds. Eri's way was by far the most crafty because she actually froze the water over which also froze the shark in the process. After freezing, she dropped a huge icicle and smashed the frozen shark.

Beat had the zodiac of shockwave but it had strange effects on his skateboard. It could make him glide in mid-air just like before and also gave it the power to almost literally control the wind around it. Beat circled around the shark at a record breaking speed which eventually created a small whirlwind which even sucked the great blue shark right out of the ground and into the air. Finally, Beat let gravity do the rest.

Eventually, the shark's numbers were down to just two although these two sharks looked stronger and bigger than the rest. They were also red in color instead of the usual blue.

"The beat is on, yo!" The skull cap teen circled around the shark again and created another whirlwind but unfortunately wasn't strong enough to suck it out of the air. Ryou immediately pitched in by setting the whirlwind on fire. After seeing that the shark still wasn't going down, everyone decided to join in; unleashing everything they could on the great red shark which now wished it'd never picked a fight.

There was now a vicious tornado filled with flames, lightning, ice, and other 'ingredients' that would be labelled down on "how to make an indestructible and kick-ass tornado".

In a matter of seconds, the tornado vanished, taking the shark along with it. "I think we overdid it…" Neku muttered before realizing that he'd forgotten about the second shark which was already closing in on an unaware Shiki. "Hey, look out!" He alerted as a familiar light surrounded him.

Shiki turned her head to see a red shark which was already diving towards her. She didn't have enough time to put up a shield or dodge and could only stand there helpless.

A figure dashed in front of her at the speed of light and quickly stopped the attack using only one hand. Shiki confirmed that the figure was actually Neku who had changed into that same form she saw a few days ago. Red eyes, a serious expression on his face, a yellow tattoo on his left arm along with a vicious looking claw on his left hand. "N-Neku…?"

With his changed left hand, he lifted the shark and threw it up into the air with ease. When the shark was a good distance away, Neku pointed his hand in the direction of the shark and fired a yellow ball which sped off like a rocket towards the shark and caused a huge explosion upon impact.

When the explosion (which was as big as a 25 story building) finally cleared, no one could see anything left of the shark which made them stare at awe at Neku who was in awe himself as his red eyes stared at his left hand. He didn't know why he transformed that time but he was thankful nonetheless. If it weren't for that random and lucky change, Shiki might've been fish food by now.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It turns out that Puffy wasn't really a stray cat after all. It was on its way to its owner (the little girl the noise took over) when it accidentally hurt its leg. That was when Nana found it and treated the injured leg. After being treated, it just continued on to the station although Nana thought that it ran away.

The little girl thanked Nana and told her that she could visit Puffy anytime she wanted. Apparently, Puffy was the cat's actual name and it was because of the same reason as well.

When the problem was finally resolved, Neku decided to ask something that was lingering in his mind the whole time that they were searching for the cat.

"Hey, Shiki" He began which caught her attention "You seemed awfully determined to find that cat. It was kinda unusual to see you like that"

Shiki chuckled and decided to give him an explanation. "Oh, so you noticed. Well, believe it or not, the reason why I made Mr. Mew was to remember a cat I once had. He used to play with me all the time and was even like my best friend. One day though…he had an accident and that was the last time I saw him. I guess that's what made me so determined to save that cat"

Neku rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Oh…sorry, I shouldn't have asked…" He said, feeling like an idiot but Shiki shook her head and smiled at him.

"No, it's okay. That was a really long time ago and I've gotten over it. Weird thing is, I can still remember the first thing I said when I first met him"

Hearing those words suddenly jogged up Mr. Mew's memory. He suddenly remembered something that felt like it'd happened an eternity ago.

"I remember!" He yelled "The first thing you said when you met the cat! You said 'My name's Shiki but you can call me big sis!' W-Why do I remember that?!" The stuffed toy asked but Shiki could only think of one answer.

"Then…that means…" She mumbled "You're him! Y-You're the cat I had five years ago?!"

Neku and the rest couldn't believe what they just heard. It was rather impossible for a stuffed cat to have the memories of a real cat that actually existed a long time ago. It just wasn't possible but then again…strange things _have_ been happening a lot lately so that possibility wasn't _that_ far-off. Reincarnation could've been the answer but that also had low chances. Unfortunately, everyone was just too wiped out to continue thinking any further.

Shiki hugged the stuffed toy tightly and looked even happier than usual. Just the thought of Mr. Mew actually being that cat from 5 years ago just made her smile and rejoice. Neku hadn't seen her look this happy ever since they met for the first time after the reaper's game. "_I guess…she really loved that cat"_ he thought with a smile.

After a few more minutes of chatting (especially about the cat Shiki had long ago) everyone decided to call it a day and head home. They left one by one until Neku, Shiki, and Nana were left. A thought passed the blue haired girl's mind and decided to ask about it.

"Hey, umm…I was just wondering but…are you two like…on a date or something? It just passed my mind 'coz you two look so cute together" She suddenly blurted out which made both Teens blush as red as a tomato. "Wh-what makes you say that?!?! I mean he- a-and I- uh we're- umm- uhh" Shiki was just saying out nonsense now like someone had pulled her tongue out. Luckily, Neku's tongue was still intact.

"N-No, we're not" He quickly said which made Nana chuckle. "Okay, I was just wondering about it. No need to get so worked up" She said before letting out another chuckle and bidding them farewell.

Neku, who had now recovered, decided to call it a day too. That was until he heard Shiki mumble something. "I…wouldn't mind though…" She said softly which caught the boy's attention and made him mutter a confused "huh?"

"I…wouldn't mind…hanging out with you sometime…if that's okay…with you" Shiki nervously said as she looked down to the ground and twiddled with her fingers. Neku was in complete shock right now. He seriously didn't expect that to happen although he didn't really think of it as a bad thing. He was a bit happy…in a random and unexplainable way although now he was almost shaking in his shoes.

"_I-Is she…asking me out on a date? C-crap…what do I do? Should I say yes or turn it down. Argh! Why does this have to be so hard, damnit!" _Neku was an expert in doing a lot of things although right now…wasn't one of them. The awkward conversation continued a little like this…

"I'It's okay…if you don't want to. I just thought I'd ask"

"_Damnit, I just can't stay silent like this. Say something, Neku! She's still waiting for an answer"_

"It's okay, Neku. It's my fault for just bringing that up out of nowhere"

"_Garrgghh, why won't my lips move! Stop staring like a blank idiot and say something!"_

"Well, umm…I'm gonna head home now. Sorry for suddenly saying that and…thanks for listening"

"_Okay, it's do or die time now. On my mark, three, two, one- wait why am I talking to myself like this?!"_

Shiki was now walking to the entrance while Neku was still shouting to himself again and again until finally, he smacked himself on the head which made his lips finally move.

"H-How 'bout this Saturday?" Neku said which made Shiki stop and look at him with a confused expression on her face which made Neku ask again.

"Is Saturday…fine with you?" He said again which made Shiki's face brighten up. "Y-Yeah, it is. I'll see you this Saturday then! Don't be late okay?" Shiki concluded before running off with a smile on her face.

"_Suddenly…I feel exhausted…"_ The tired boy thought before deciding to head home as well.

Little did they know, the rest of the group was on a nearby yet hidden spot where they witnessed the whole conversation. The girls suddenly let out a loud squeal which caused great pain to Beat and Ryou's ears. Ryou actually didn't really know what was going on but joined in anyway.

"But you know" Rhyme began "Isn't it supposed to be the _guy_ asking the _girl_ out and not the other way around 'coz that's how it seemed like to me"

"Well this _is_ Neku we're talking about after all. He probably doesn't know anything about how it works. That's…kinda the part that worries me…" Eri replied before the group started discussing a 'battle plan' for the big date. The mission: Don't let anything spoil the date. Not even noise…

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Neku's got a biiiiiig day ahead of him…

And that's a wrap for this chapter. Just like the last sentence says, Neku's got a big day ahead of him but hopefully the 'battle plan' will be able to prevent some casualties. Well…maybe. Anyway, feel free to comment or post suggestions for the next chapter. I'd really appreciate it. I'm already getting pumped up about writing the next chap (although I have to go somewhere tomorrow and won't be back till late night….grr) but I'll still try to finish as soon as possible.

I've been thinking of drawing Neku's noise form while I'm out on that little trip although please don't expect too much again since I don't have much experience yet in drawing. Also, I've also drawn Shiki and Ryou and posted it over at deviantart. just search gibder(.)deviantart(.)com. Well, cheers!


	9. First Date

Ok so this is gonna be a really long chapter but most of it about the date anyway. I had a bunch of ideas but some of them just didn't connect right so I had to use something else. Just so you know, I've decided a name for Ryou's sword and pyro blade is what I came up with since it has pyrokineses.

By the way, just like many other writers here, reviews are really important to me because they keep me and the story going. They keep me motivated and determined to do my best on writing the next chapters because I know that the readers are helping me out with helpful suggestions, criticisms or just plain comments on the events of the story. I'm not forcing you to comment but if you do, I'd really appreciate it so much. Umm…sorry if I was a bit rash. I just needed to say that.

Now that that's settled, let's move on to the 'date' chapter. Hopefully there will be more chapters like this to come.

The World Begins With You

Chapter 9: First Date

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Saturday…the day that Neku's been thinking for two days straight now and finally that day has come. This day will forever be marked in his memory as his first date. The bad thing about it is a certain person named Sho Minamimoto who's been rather bored lately. He apparently heard about the date as well which works as serious bad luck for the two. Hopefully, Eri, Beat, Rhyme, Nana, and Ryou will be able to work something out with this.

"_Hmm…I knew I shouldn't have come here too early" _Neku thought as he stared at the blue morning sky and then at the statue of Hachiko. The meeting time was 10:30 but Neku decided to be there at 10:00 because it _was_ his first date and he wanted to be extra careful even if that meant going extra early.

From a far away distance, Eri and the rest of the crew were making preparations with the help of Hanekoma himself. He gave them all disguises which made them look like totally different people. He also lent them a noise tracker (which Hanekoma only had two) just in case Sho decided to raise hell on the date.

"You know, Beat…" Eri began "If you only just told Mr. H about the date without being so loud in doing so, we wouldn't have to use these extra measures"

Beat wasn't paying attention to what Eri was saying because he was too busy practicing his 'spying' techniques. One of them included walking like a total idiot (which he thought made him look less suspicious) and hoping Neku nor Shiki would suspect that he would be following them.

"I'M TALKING TO YOU, DIMWIT!" Eri yelled as she threw Mr. Mew right at Beat's face and knocked him flat on the ground. Yesterday, Shiki asked Eri to look after the stuffed cat so that she could focus on the date although neither she nor Neku still knew that Eri and the rest would be spying on them.

"Awright, awright, my bad. You really should try baseball 'coz that pitch was tough as nails, yo…" The blonde said as he rubbed his forehead which had a red mark that resembled Mr. Mew's face.

After a few more minutes, Hanekoma left the group and said that it was because it wasn't his 'fight' and was only an observer. He also said to keep a close watch on Sho because that guy can think of anything when he's bored.

Neku checked the time on his phone to see that it was already 10:20. "_Time sure passes by fast…"_ He thought before he suddenly felt a soft tap on his back which made him drop his phone by accident. "Oh, s-sorry, Neku!"

Neku quickly picked up his phone and turned around to see Shiki who had a worried expression on her face. "Don't worry, it's not broken" He assured as he showed her the phone which was still in one piece.

"Anyway…" Neku began as he reached in his pocket and took out a small slip of paper "Here, take this" Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a ticket for a new amusement park in a new district inside Shibuya called Yokkasune. Actually, that area's been in renovation even before the reaper's game started and was only finished a week ago.

"Wow, I thought we were we just gonna take a look around Yokkasune but you even managed to get these. That's pretty thoughtful of you" Shiki said with a giggle which made Neku blush slightly. "Well…I thought we'd do something more fun than tour around. We can still look around Yokkasune before heading to the place if you want" He said which made Shiki blush slightly as well. She'd been seeing more new sides of Neku ever since the Angel's game started.

Eri and the rest of the crew watched the two walk off and head towards the scramble. "Well what do you know, I guess Neku's not completely clueless at this after all," Eri said with a relieved tone

"We should get started now. We can't let anything spoil the date!" Rhyme suggested with a fire in her eyes which surprised everyone, especially her older brother. "You're jus' growin' up too fast, yo…"

They weren't the only ones on the move. Sho was quietly watching the two and waited for a chance for him to have some fun of his own.

Since Yokkasune was beyond the A-East district, they passed through Dogenzaka from the Scramble and headed to A-East from there.

"Hey, Neku" Shiki began which made him turn his head towards her "Do you know why they call the place Yokkasune?" She asked with a smile. Neku shook his head and asked her what it meant.

"Well it's actually a mix of two words. 'yokka' which means 'the fourth day' and Kitsune which you should know already means 'fox'. There was a legend about that place about 500 years ago. There was a prince who wanted to marry a girl from a rival clan. They knew that the leaders wouldn't approve of it so they ran away. One day though, they were found by the clan of the girl and the prince was banished. The prince told the girl that on the fourth day of the next month, he would come get her with an ancient treasure that was passed down his family. That treasure turned out to be a mystical fox that could disguise itself as anything. Using that ability, the fox managed to lead the girl back to the prince and they escaped to a place where they lived in peace,"

"I see" "_I guess she did some research on it. The part about marrying from a rival clan kinda sounds like Romeo and Juliet though…" _Neku thought before he and Shiki continued on to Yokkasune.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After a couple more minutes, they reached the district of Yokkasune which was jam packed right now with tons of people walking around the area.

"Wow…there's so many people here but I guess that's pretty normal since this place only opened a week ago" Shiki said as she looked at all the people walking by. Most of the girls among those people already had shopping bags with them which made Shiki focus her eyes on all the shops around the district.

Neku immediately saw the excited look in Shiki's eyes and sighed "_I suspected something like this would happen. Oh well, I guess it wouldn't hurt too much"_

Just like he thought, Shiki decided to spend a little time browsing through the stores while dragging Neku in the process but this time, Neku didn't really seem to mind. He was even enjoying it a bit and even bought a little something for himself. He didn't know why he wasn't feeling annoyed like usual but he didn't really wanna think about that right now.

After about an hour of shopping and looking around the large district of Yokkasune, the two decided that it was about time they headed to the amusement park which was located all the way at the back of the district although due to its huge size, you could see it as soon as you entered Yokkasune.

At Yokkasune Kingdom… (Neku thought this name sounded kinda cheesy…)

."This place is huge! It's like the biggest amusement park I've ever seen!" An excited Shiki said as she looked at the gigantic park that spread as far as the eyes could see. There were rides of all kinds and buildings that were probably used for the indoor rides and sights.

"Well, what do you wanna try first, Shiki?" Neku asked his companion who was shifting her gaze back and forth, trying to decide which ride they should try.

Finally, her eyes stopped on a roller coaster which was full of twists, twirls, circles and was even longer than your usual roller coaster. Even the name was self explanatory and was enough to make Neku gulp.

"'_Death's messenger' huh…? Darn, I knew something like this would happen. Well, here goes nothing…" _Neku thought with a slightly fearful expression which Shiki quickly noticed. "Neku, are you feeling alright?" She asked which drew Neku out of his chain of thought.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go fall in line" Neku said as he started for the entrance. Shiki looked at him suspiciously then eventually followed him in as well.

Moments later, another group also decided to ride the roller coaster. Eri, Nana, and Rhyme followed Neku and Shiki inside while Beat and Ryou were ordered to continue a look out for the little demon known as Sho Minamimoto. So far, he hasn't acted but that didn't mean they could let their guard down.

After a few minutes of waiting, it was finally Neku and Shiki's turn. Subsequently, it was also the three girl's turn to ride the same one as them. While they were in line, Neku thought they looked a bit familiar but the disguises were just too good for even Neku to see through them.

The coaster slowly rose to the highest point of the ride. Neku kept full composure at first but that changed when he could finally see rock bottom from where he was. "_Come on, Neku. Fight it. You…can't panic…not now. Alright, bring it!" _As soon as he finished pumping himself up, the coaster dropped at full speed

which made everyone start screaming at the top of their lungs. Well, everyone except Neku of course who was busy trying to hold it in. Inside though, he was screaming like a madman gone even madder.

Neku braved all the twists and turns with determination. For the whole ride, he was able to keep his cool except for the parts where the coaster made sudden and quick drops but he managed to counter his fear by concentrating on something else like jerking his leg continuously just to take the fear away. He couldn't possibly close his eyes because that would make Shiki think he was afraid which was obviously what Neku _didn't_ want to happen.

Meanwhile…

"I'm friggin' bored, yo! I was seriously calling dibs on ridin' that thing but instead I get stuck with watch duty" Beat sighed although Ryou was just fine with watch duty. He was just silently standing on the edge of the rooftop, staring at all the people walking by.

"If it's for our friends than I don't mind…" He mumbled which made Beat sigh again. "Well yeah, I guess ya got a point. I mean this _is_ the first time those two got on a date so I'll cut em' some slack" Ryou shifted his eyes towards Beat upon hearing the word 'date'. "I've never been on a date before. What's it like…?"

Beat shook his head and shrugged "Sorry, man. You askin' the wrong dude. We on the same boat, yo" he explained with a sad tone before Mr. Mew suddenly decided to ask something. "What's a date? Is that some kind of food?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at the date…

"_I-I managed. Damn, that felt like hell…"_ An exhausted Neku thought as he tried to stop his legs from shaking. The ride was already done but his legs apparently weren't. Shiki had been observing Neku up to this point and came up with a conclusion on why he'd been acting so awkward the whole duration of the ride.

"Neku, you're scared of roller coaster rides, aren't you?" Shiki asked with a grin which made Neku's eye twitch. "_Damnit…caught red handed. Guess I could try lying…"_

"It's just that my doctor said that I'm…not supposed to be exposed to too much sudden jerking. It affects…my focus and makes my head hurt"

Shiki could clearly tell that he was lying. She had him cornered like a rat for the first time in a long time and she was enjoying it "Oh really~ then explain to me why this doesn't happen to you when you're fighting noise. I'm sure those fights have more jerking around than 3 rides combined"

"_Grr…this is like one of those cop videos…"_ He thought before seeing Shiki's grin suddenly turned into a warm smile.

"Neku, it's alright with me if you're afraid. We're all afraid of something and it's not something we should be embarrassed about. I'm kind of afraid of dark places, Nana's afraid of skeletons and Eri's afraid of spiders. 'Just be who you are'. It's a phrase I heard before and it's stuck to my head ever since"

Neku still remained silent but Shiki could tell that he didn't feel the same way he did a few minutes ago.

Right behind them were Eri and the two other girls who were watching the touching scene go by. "Aww…that's just so cute. This is turning out to be a pretty good first date after all" Eri said before seeing the two exit the area.

After riding a few more rides (which Neku no longer had any problems with), they decided to take a quick break and get some grub before seeing what else the park had to offer.

During that break, an announcement was heard throughout the whole park. "Attention all you hecto- I mean folks! We're gonna be holding a contest in 30 minutes over at the main dome. Magnificent prizes will be awarded to all the winners so get down here and have some fun! See you there!"

"That voice…Sho?! The hell's he doing here?" Neku was sure he just heard Sho and everyone else who knew him were sure of that too. He was finally on the move and so were Eri and her crew. They switched the noise tracker to full capacity and continued to follow their targets on their date.

When they got to the main dome, Sho was standing on a tall platform with his megaphone ready in his hand. "For starters, we're holding this event to commemorate the history of Yokkasune. You know what day it is, right? That's right, digits, it's the fourth of November and the legend of Yokkasune takes place on the fourth day of that month if you didn't know. Now, on to the main part. Contestants will go through a series of stages as they go through the whole legend of Yokkasune. Now, if you would kindly enter the dome"

The doors to the giant dome swung open and numerous contestants immediately went inside. Neku and Shiki were still thinking though whether or not they should trust him.

"Well, if you two don't wanna go in then suit yourself. By the way, the grand prize is 50, 000 yen and a little something extra. You've got 5 minutes to make up your mind coz' that's when these doors will close. See you inside if you decide to try it"

Sho slowly walked inside the dome leaving the two teens still confused. They didn't even know how in the world Sho even got to be the host in the first place. Every single bit of it spelled the word "Suspicious"

Then again, Shiki thought it might be kind of fun to try it. There was the fact that Sho was on their side now so she didn't think there would be any extreme danger although she still knew that Sho was the kind of person who always had a plan. It's like there was a blueprint installed in his brain.

Ultimately though, Shiki made up her mind and decided to try it. Neku still had a ton of doubts but since Shiki wanted to go for it, it didn't seem like Neku had much of a choice.

Once inside, Sho did a bit more explaining before telling them one piece of advice which lingered in each contestant's head. "A little heads up, everyone. Those of you who get scared shitless by the sight of the undead should back out now because you won't last a second in the third maze"

Some contestants decided to actually back out because of that warning. They had no idea that there would be a part like that. Neku and Shiki decided to go through with it though and apparently, so did Eri and co. who were still in disguise.

Finally, Sho ordered everyone to enter separate tunnels. There were about 20 of them so there were more than enough. If the contestants were a pair (Neku, Shiki) or more (like Eri, Nana, and Ryou), then they could enter the same tunnel although obviously the prize will be split if that group wins.

The first maze wasn't really like a maze at all but more like a physical test. The scene was about the first escape of the prince and the girl from their rivalling clans.

There were a ton of obstacles like pendulum punching bags or having to swing down a rope unto a platform about 10 feet away. Around those obstacles were dark pits and if they fell into them, they'd be disqualified for the next round.

Beat and Rhyme's team were doing pretty well. Because of Beat's physical stature and strength, he was able to breeze through most of the obstacles while helping his little sister in the process.

Eri's team (which was composed of her, Nana, and Ryou) were doing pretty good too although Nana was disqualified when she fell off a balancing stick and fell into the pit. Eri and Ryou were about to quit too because of concern for their friend but Sho's voice stopped them from doing so.

"Don't worry coz' anyone who falls in the pit just gets sent back to the entrance so there's nothin' to be zetta worried about. If you don't hurry, you might lose so get your butts moving" The echoing voice made Eri and Ryou decide to continue on.

One of the advantages of having a team of two or more was that the current area needed some teamwork in order to get through and teamwork was the exact thing that Neku and Shiki had plenty of.

"I guess all that fighting together in the reaper's game paid off right, Neku?" Shiki asked her team-mate who nodded in agreement. It seemed that those two were the second ones to finish the course since Beat and Rhyme finished first. Eri's team and a few other teams also made it through to the next round.

The next round's scene was about the prince and the girl's time in hiding from their clans. This stage was more of a mental challenge which entailed a series of brain twisters like finding clues and or hidden entrances and such.

"Hey Neku, look over here. It says '**Let the darkness be your way. Let the light lead you astray**'. What do you think that means?" Shiki asked as she looked at a sign post and then at her surroundings. They were in a deep forest which looked pretty real. The scene was evening and had a big bright moon in the sky.

Neku stared at the heavenly body for a moment, trying to figure out what the message meant. "_Hmm…we're in a dark forest. There's only one source of light here which is obviously this big moon right here. The goal is obviously to try and find the exit…"_

Shiki saw that there were 2 paths. One path lied directly under the moon and therefore had more light, and another path which was a bit farther from the moon and had less light. "Hey Neku, I think the message means we should take the darker path. Let's go!" Shiki immediately ran off to the darker path but Neku immediately saw something that changed his mind. "Shiki, Wait!"

The ground under Shiki suddenly fell off but Neku dashed in just in time to grab her hand, preventing her from falling to a now revealed pit. "W-What just happened?!" Shiki yelled as she continued to hang from Neku's hand until he finally pulled her up.

"That was the wrong one, Shiki. Look over there" Neku replied as he pointed to a direction opposite the most lit path. The lit path apparently made a shadow which engulfed part of the forest in darkness. "But there's nothing th-" Shiki suddenly remembered the sign's message and smiled.

"Oh, I get it now. That darker path was just a distraction. They hoped we would fall for it since it was the **darker** path of the two but there was actually one more path that was darker than all the rest. Did I get it right?" She asked and Neku nodded.

It was hard to see at first but eventually the dark path became brighter and brighter until they saw a door with the word "Exit" on it.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eri and Ryou made it through the stage too although Beat and Rhyme unfortunately weren't able to. Rhyme _was_ smart for her age but not smart enough to prevent Beat from convincing them both to take the less darker path and not the one that Neku and Ryou's team took.

Before they entered the door for the last stage, Shiki paused herself and looked at Neku with a fearful expression on her face. "Neku, I-I'm not so sure about this…" She mumbled which made Neku smile.

"Hey, if I got through my fear then I'm sure you'll do just fine. Just stay behind me alright?" Neku calmly asked which turned Shiki's fearful look into a happy one. "Alright, thanks Neku"

Only two teams remained; Ryou's team and Neku's team. The other teams fell pray to the riddle of the last stage and Neku wouldn't actually be surprised if that whole stage was Sho's doing. The minute they entered the stage, they were greeted by Sho's voice.

"Welcome to the last stage of the ride! The last scene is about the prince's journey to obtain the secret treasure which could free his love from her stupid clan. The legend states that the treasure was hidden deep inside a cave where the dead rest and let me tell you this: They don't like to be disturbed. Not _one_ bit"

Just that phrase was enough to send a chill down Shiki's spine which made her grip Neku's arm tightly, which in turn made the boy blush slightly before they continued down the dark cave-like scenario.

Ryou and Eri were in the same area but at a different spot. "Errgghh…this place gives me the creeps…" Eri complained as Ryou held up his pyro blade for more light. A few steps further in, a slimy creature suddenly caught Eri's attention and gave her the creeps while it was at it.

"I-Is that…" She began as her eyes scanned the object in front of them. Shiki said earlier that Eri was afraid of spiders and in some odd stroke of luck, that was the thing that stood right in front of them. It wasn't any ordinary spider though. You could say it about 50 times the size of a real one.

"SPIDER!!!!!!!!" Eri screamed at the top of her lungs as she grabbed Ryou by his cloak and started running like crazy, literally dragging Ryou in the process who hit his head on a few rocks along the way.

Shiki gripped Neku's arm even tighter at hearing that loud shriek. "Neku, Wh-What was that scream?!?!" She asked loudly before Neku ordered her to let go of his arm or he would've suffered permanent nerve damage.

Moments later, they could hear rapid and loud footsteps that were getting closer and closer to them until they finally caught sight of Eri and Ryou who rammed into Neku with the force of a rocket.

"Owowowowow…" Eri groaned as she rubbed her forehead. Once Neku's vision normalized, he finally realized that the girl was actually the red-headed Eri, mostly because her wig had just come off. "I knew it was you! Then that means that's Ryou, right?" Neku said, eye twitching rapidly.

Even after Neku took Ryou's wig off, it was still hard to recognize his face due to all the rocks that came in contact with it during Eri's moment of completely losing it. "Wow…he looks like he just came from a boxing match with Muhammad Ali…" Shiki added before Eri started apologizing to the violet haired boy.

Little did they know, the giant spider followed their trail to that exact point and was now right behind them. Before Eri could go psycho again, Ryou sliced the spider in half with his pyro blade, revealing that it was just a machine and not really Spiderman's long lost cousin.

"When Shiki said you were scared of spiders, I didn't think you were_ this_ scared…" Neku commented which made Eri blush in embarrassment. "L-Let's just move on shall we…?"

The group proceeded through the dark and slimy cave until they came across a large section with a box in the middle. Apparently, it looked like a music box of some sort. Beside the box was a card which Neku read aloud. "**Brave through the undead to find what you seek but beware, for their hunger is at its peak" **_"Geez…what's up with all the rhyming?"_

There were also fake swords there and directions telling Neku and the rest to take one. "I don't know why we need these things but oh well" Shiki said before they continued onwards. After a few steps, figures with green skin and deformed faces slowly started to close in on them.

Both Eri and Shiki rushed behind the two boys with 'scared to death' kind of expressions. "Z-Z-Zom…bie…" Eri mumbled before Ryou decided to do what he does best: slash stuff. Turns out that it was actually what you're supposed to do. When the wooden sword came in contact with the ghoul, the figure suddenly vanished. That action made Neku inspect the wooden sword to see a small red light bulb inside it.

"These zombies are just holograms. See the red light on the sword? My guess is that it acts like a price scanner in a supermarket only it actually works when it hits something" Neku explained before swinging the sword at a zombie, making it disappear right after.

"We…" Ryou began "Should probably hurry. They're growing more in number…"

Neku and the rest raced through the area, slashing any zombies or flying creatures that tried to touch them. They didn't know what would happen if they're actually touched by the holograms but they didn't want to know anyway. It probably had something to do with being disqualified.

After a while, they reached an area which looked like the end of the road. Inside was a fox which was stood in front of them.

"**Humans**" The fox began** "I am impressed by your will to come here but I must test your knowledge before serving you as my master. Answer this question and I am yours to command. What is…the name of the girl whom is the love of the prince?"**

Neku, Eri, and Ryou were absolutely clueless although a blush came across Shiki's face for some unknown reason. "Shiki, do you know?" Neku asked his date who quickly nodded, still blushing. "I-It's…Shiki…" She said which made her friends' jaws drop in surprise.

"A-Are you serious?!?!" Eri and Neku exclaimed as Ryou continued to watch the fox which smiled at the group.

"**Very good, human. As promised, I am now yours to command"** the fox vanished immediately after finishing its sentence. Moments later, the lights in the area turned off and a big screen appeared right in front of them. It was kind of like watching a movie on the big screen.

The video was about the conclusion of the legend of Yokkasune. About how the prince used the fox to save the girl and how they escaped the grasp of their clans and escaped to a peaceful place where they lived happily in love. At the end of the video, the prince and the girl were shown along with the fox and one small boy and girl who were most likely their children and on that note, the video ended and the lights turned back on.

"Congratulations, you are the winners. I gotta say, you did pretty zetta good. I haven't had this much fun in ages!" A clapping Sho said who suddenly appeared through a door.

Sho revealed that he was actually a staff member of the amusement park which greatly shocked everyone. He was hired as an event manager because of his talent in forming up ideas in a flash and also because his brain was just so darn powerful. When he heard about the date, he immediately thought of the legend of Yokkasune since it was kind of related to a date…in a way. The owner thought the idea was simply astounding and decided to give him full control of the event.

"…I guess this noise tracker was plain useless then. I really thought you were gonna use some taboo noise…" Eri said, putting the device in her pocket.

Unfortunately, Eri and Ryou were disqualified from the event ever since the third round started because Ryou sliced up the mechanical spider which is obviously something you're _not_ supposed to do.

That meant that Neku and Shiki were the winners. Sho handed them a check for the money and something else which made the two blush crimson red. It was a picture of Shiki gripping Neku's arm when they first entered the third stage. It actually _did_ look pretty cute and touching which made Sho laugh his heart out at their reaction.

"You…" Neku mumbled as he put his headphones on "YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, YOU ASSHOLE?!?!"

Moments later, a very loud earthquake-like noise was heard throughout the whole amusement park… ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was now evening in the park and everyone was enjoying some delicious food that one of the restaurants inside the park had. Eri confessed that they followed Neku and Shiki because they wanted their first date to be an unforgettable one.

Mission accomplished though because that's exactly what was done. When Neku was done with his food, he decided to step outside the restaurant for some fresh evening air. Outside, Neku recalled everything that happened that day as he stared at the flickering stars that hovered over all the rides.

Unknowing to him, Shiki slowly creped up behind Neku and yelled out his name loud enough to make him lose his balance. "D-Don't do that…"

Shiki couldn't help but chuckle at her friend's reaction. "Sorry, Neku. I just had to do that" She said which made him shake his head and smile, as if saying that he didn't mind. "Anyway, what're you doing here?"

Shiki moved beside him and started staring at the stars as well. "I could ask you the same thing" She replied which made Neku look at her with an 'I asked you first' kind of look.

"Well" Shiki began "I thought I'd get some fresh air. How bout' you?" She asked and Neku nodded. "Same"

There were a few moments of silence and stargazing until Shiki finally decided to break that silence. "Umm…Neku?" She said, gaining his attention.

"Thanks…for today. I haven't had this much fun in a long time. I really appreciate it, Neku" She said with a warm and grateful smile which made Neku do the same. "I guess I should be thanking you too…so…thanks"

At that moment, Shiki and Neku's eyes focused on each other and stayed that way for about 10 seconds before a blush came up on their faces which made their heads turn opposite each other, finally realizing what they were doing.

"Hey, you guys! They servin' up dessert so you better haul it back here before we eat It all, yo!" Beat yelled from a distance with traces of vanilla ice cream already present on his face. On top of his head was Mr. Mew who also had traces of ice cream all over his face.

Shiki waved at the two and smiled "Alright, we're coming! Guess we should head back now, Neku" She said before running back into the restaurant.

Neku stopped himself for a moment to entertain one last thought before heading back inside to eat dessert with his friends.

"_This is one day…I don't think I'll ever forget"_

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And it's finished! Whew I'm beat. I think I'm gonna take a short nap after this.

I just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who've been reading up to this point. This long chapter also serves as a thank you gift from me to you for taking time off to read this. I hope to write more chapters like this in the near future.

Also, I've already drawn Neku's noise form and have uploaded it on my account in deviantart. It's gibder(.)deviantart(.)com if you didn't know. It's far from good but hey, I don't really have much experience in drawing so no flaming please…

Well…I'm heading to bed now. See you!"


	10. opposing resolve

Before we start, I'd like to thank tenthlttr and Pokehturtle for making me realize that my writing style was a bit informal and not very good. That's the reason why I decided to re-write the other past chapters and make them at least a little more presentable. So now, I'm gonna stick with a more _writer_-like approach and try not to get caught up too much and accidentally put myself in the story because of it.

Also, I've uploaded a group pic of updated versions of Neku's noise form, Shiki and Ryou at my deviantart page. Once again, the name's gibder. If you can guess where I got the name gibder, then you're pretty good. Here's a hint though: Instrument

The World Begins With You

Chapter 10: opposing resolves

"Neku...you awake? Hellooooo?" Shiki whispered as she examined a sleeping Neku who was quietly resting on a chair, head leaning on a window that was right beside him. Shiki decided to try something else to wake him and entrusted that task to her little stuffed friend who climbed atop the boy's head.

"Wakey wakey big bro Nekky!" The toy shouted into Neku's ear which made his head bounce hard on the window. After his rather rude awakening, he quickly grabbed the toy and threw it ways away from their current position.

"Can't you find a less painful way to wake me up...?" Neku complained before looking around him and remembering that he was actually on a train. He wasn't the only one on the train but Eri, Ryou, Rhyme, Beat, Nana, Hanekoma and the person right in front of Neku were on the locomotive as well.

(Flashback)

"So here's the deal, the angels have announced that they'll be using one more area for the game now" A serious looking Hanekoma started "They'll be using Akihabara as a new area although Shibuya will still remain our main HQ. Once again...they haven't told us the reason but I'm sure it's gotta be something that benefits them. I kinda have a good hunch it's about research on different potential gates to the noise plane"

(End of flashback)

"Different gates to the noise plane huh?" Neku began "Damn, we're all being used like guinea pigs by those angels. I'm sure every round they make in this stupid game just benefits them and them only"

Shiki could see the irritation in Neku's eyes and decided to change the subject before his mood becomes even worse. "You know, it's kinda funny that we're actually going to Kyoto instead of Akihabara. I guess we really need more players huh?" She said as she stared at the digital notice on the train which told them that they were a couple of minutes away from Kyoto.

"Well...Mr. H did say that the reaper's game in Shibuya wasn't the only reaper's game that took place. A couple of years ago, there was a reaper's game that took place in Kyoto too so there's gotta be some veteran players that we can ask" Neku explained before putting his headphones on to listen to some music.

A few seconds into the song, Neku suddenly stopped his music player because he felt a warm piece of fabric on his shoulder. He examined the fabric to be a yellow colored scarf which he grasped, shooting a confused look at Shiki after.

"You like it? I just started on it last night and finally had it done this morning. I made the others some scarfs too with different colors each" Shiki cheerfully said which surprised Neku on how fast she had made all of them. He knew she was fast in sewing but he didn't know she was that fast, although it'd been quite awhile since he'd seen her sew something. She had also improved a bit on designing with the help of Eri.

It was already nearing December and it was rather cold already so receiving a customized scarf wasn't only thoughtful, but also very useful too. "Thanks, Shiki" Neku said with a smile as he wrapped it around his neck along with his headphones. It took awhile though before the two could realize that they were already being watched by their friends on nearby seats.

"Aww, she saved the best for last. That's so sweet of you, Shiki" Eri suddenly commented which made her best friend blush at hearing that.

"N-No, that's because..." Shiki began "Well, Neku's seat was the farthest so I thought I'd give his the last..." Even though she said that, the smirks on the audience's faces explained that they weren't really convinced.

A couple of minutes later, the train finally stopped at the Kyoto train station following an announcement made for the passengers to not forget their belongings and such. Everyone immediately stepped out of the train to finally breath some fresh morning air. It was actually nice to be surrounded by nature for once and not by huge buildings everywhere they looked.

Seeing the green captivating scenery around the station, Beat stretched his arms and let out a relaxed yawn. "Ahh...this feels great, yo" He said and his little sister quickly agreed with him.

"Even the air smells nice" She said "I dunno how long it's been since we've stepped out of the big and busy Shibuya" Rhyme stretched out her arms as well and swayed her eyes around her surroundings. They were only in the station so they were still far away from the city itself. In the distance, they could see a huge temple with a pond and numerous trees around it.

Hanekoma could already see the curiosity in everyone's eyes and sighed "Look, I know you guys are hyped up about exploring Kyoto but we still have to focus on the main mission here: To recruit more players" He instructed which made them sigh, which in turn made Hanekoma sigh as well with guilt included. "Hmm...well I guess we could explore a little bit while looking for the players..."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After a long while of info gathering (with a few sight seeing in between), the group had figured out that there were actually players still living in Kyoto although some of them had already left. The game that took place a few years ago in Kyoto focused on a different theme than the one that happened in Shibuya. It wasn't about giving people a second chance but was actually about making those players realize solutions to their problems. All the players in that game had a deep and serious problem which they probably might've not survived if it had lingered on, so the game acted as their cure.

Right now, the group had recruited a few players with most of them even volunteering to show their appreciation for the composer of that game. Surprisingly, when Neku asked who the composer was, they pointed at the middle-aged man beside him who wore shades even when it was dark.

"N-No way...so you were the composer of that game here in Kyoto?" Neku asked Hanekoma who laughed in response "Surprised? Well, yeah i was the composer all right. That game was also the reason why Josh befriended me in the first place. He knew from seeing that game that I was someone he could trust completely"

After a few more minutes, the group chose to take a break and decided to visit a certain place in the city called Hankyu Department Store. Actually, it was mostly the girls' idea to go there.

"Wow…just look at all these different styles of clothes. Maybe I'll even get a nice kimono here" Eri mumbled before heading off along with Shiki to look around the store.

Seeing the two girls speed off, everyone went their separate ways around the department store (except Hanekoma who decided to just hang out at a nearby coffee shop). The store had an adequate variety of clothing and other things like cooking ware and furniture although those things weren't really needed at the moment.

Neku was walking around the electrical appliance isle when he found Ryou holding a sort of tennis racket. Neku wondered why there was a tennis racket in a department store but suddenly remembered that not everything was what they seemed. "Ryou, don't touch that!" Neku yelled just in time to stop his friend from touching the stringed part of the racket.

"Huh? Is there something wrong?" the boy with goggles asked, making Neku take the racket and a coin from his wallet. Upon contact with the coin, the strings suddenly sparked a bright light which made Ryou even more curious.

"See now? If you touched it, you might've gotten shocked just like the coin" He explained although the violet clad boy still seemed clueless.

"You seriously don't know what this is? It's a bug zapper that you swing around; but not too fast or bugs won't be the only thing this racket zaps. I thought everyone knew what this was"

Ryou swayed his head in contrast to Neku's statement. "I'm sorry. I'm just not used to the city. I grew up living the more _traditional_ way…" He said, a silent look on his face which made Neku just a little more suspicious of his friend.

Meanwhile, the two girls were happily looking around the clothing isle. "Hey Shiki, what do you think of this? Maybe I should wear it in the up-coming festival" Eri asked as she held up a pink kimono with a yellow sash. Shiki scanned the fabric from top to bottom and smiled "Yeah, it would look great on you, right Mr. Mew?" She said and the stuffed animal nodded in response before taking a look at a green colored kimono which hung right behind Shiki.

"Hey big sis, I think this one would look good on you!" Mr. Mew pointed at the leaf colored kimono which Shiki took and put it close to her body, as if imagining how it would look like on her. Eri thought it matched pretty well. Shiki did seem to look good with green clothing.

"You should definitely get that one. It suits you perfectly" Eri commented, an honest smile on her face. Shiki thanked her best friend and put the kimono in her shopping basket before looking around some more.

Little did they know, Beat and Rhyme were in a close-by area and managed to eavesdrop on the whole conversation. "You know, Beat" The smaller sibling began "those two seem really close, it's almost like they're sisters. I can tell, because Eri acts like a great older sister; just like you act like a great older brother"

Beat smiled and put his arm around his sister's shoulder "Aw shucks Rhyme, what you said was pretty tight. Thanks fo' thinkin' of me that way. And I agree with you, if I didn't know em', I'd probably think they were siblings too"

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Eventually, Eri and Shiki finished their shopping and decided to head for the counter to pay. A few steps away though, there was this strange feeling that struck them. It felt like they were being followed so they decided to turn at a corner and hoped to ambush whoever it was. As they expected, the stranger turned at that same corner with a gun in hand but was intercepted by Eri who quickly gripped the gun and froze it in a matter of seconds.

"Who are you and what do you think you're doing?" Eri suspiciously said before gripping the frozen gun even tighter and cracking it. The attacker immediately let go of the gun and instinctively backed off. As soon as he did, another gun was pulled out from his jacket but was once again interrupted when an unknown force sliced the gun in half.

"Don't move" Neku was already right behind the man and had a shockwave blade pointed right at the attacker's neck. Across him was Ryou who held the cut half of the gun in his left hand and pyro blade at his right.

"Well" The attacker said "Aren't you the most alert brats I've ever seen" Before Neku could interrogate the man; he quickly ducked and gave Neku's legs a quick sweep which made the teenager slip and fall on his back. Ryou proceeded to intercept but the hooded assailant dodged the slice and flipped a few feet back, putting himself out of harm's way. His movements were almost like a ninja's in the fact that they were so swift and accurate.

"You guys are pretty skilled but I'm afraid you're out of luck. You see, I've set a bomb here that'll explode anytime I push this button" The mysterious man alerted, a switch already in hand which stopped Neku and the rest in their tracks.

Seeing that he finally got their attention, the man flipped his hood back to finally show his face. He had black hair styled in a ponytail with grey sideburns and a small scar across his nose. His face mentally told the group that he looked like he was still in his late teens.

Moments later, Hanekoma arrived along with Beat and Rhyme. The man with shades immediately recognized the attacker as he stared into the man's black, serious eyes. "Shin…Shin Amaya. It's been awhile. How've you been?" Hanekoma asked with a polite tone although his face remained serious and alert.

The man known as Shin crossed his arms and grinned "Sanae Hanekoma…we meet again, I see. I'd like to thank you for all the pain you caused me during that last reaper's game you put me through" Although, his tone sounded calm, his words were clearly the opposite.

"Shin, you know I did that for your own good" Sanae replied although Shin still seemed like he bore a grudge against the man. "That's total bull if you ask me. You killed my sister, you asshole" Shin's tone was now starting to change from his former calm one to a rather aggressive tone.

Hanekoma could now see the hate in his eyes that he remembered from two years ago. He never would've expected that his grudge would still be this strong and fiery. "Open your eyes Shin. She gave her life to protect you! Why do you want to just waste it like this?"

As the argument stretched on, Shin only became more irritated "What makes you think I'm wasting it? I've been waiting for this day to finally get my pay-back! I…never thought you'd come back but holy hell, you did and now…I've resolved myself" Shin said with rage before holding up the switch in his hand.

"Now, I want you to meet me at Kiyomizu-dera temple at 7:00 tonight. If you don't then I'll push this button and watch the fireworks from there. But just to make sure you don't high-tail it out of here…you, get over here" He ordered as he pointed at Shiki who refused at first.

"I'm gonna need one of your friends as a hostage so that you don't try anything funny on me. If you refuse, then I'll push this button right now. I don't really care anymore if I die but how about all the other innocent people here?" Shin's threatening words finally managed to convince Shiki. Although her friends dearly wanted to stop her, she told them that there was no other choice.

"That wasn't so hard now, was it? So, meet me at Kiyomizu-dera…or else" At that statement, Shin threw a small ball to the ground and tons of smoke rose soon after, taking them out of sight.

When the smoke was finally gone, so were Shin and Shiki which caused Neku to slam his fist on nearby furniture and look angrily at Hanekoma "You've got some explaining to do. Just who the hell is that guy?"

Hanekoma decided that it was best to tell them everything he knew about Shin Amaya. Unlike the reaper's game Neku and the rest competed in, you didn't have to die to be able to play the game that took place in Kyoto. All you needed was a serious dilemma that threatened you greatly. Shin was placed in the game along with his older sister because their family was part of some assassin group called the 'White Hand'. Neither Shin nor his sister could stand what was happening although they couldn't do anything about it because betraying the group meant certain death.

The reaper's game helped Shin and his sister realize that they had to do everything they could to take down the 'White Hand'. They were doing it for all the innocent people and mostly, for themselves. Shin's sister though, didn't want any harm to come to her little brother so one day; she knocked her brother unconscious and headed for the 'White Hand' by herself. The next day, Shin found out that the 'White Hand' had been destroyed but sadly, so was his sister.

"That's…pretty tragic…" Eri began, a tear already falling from her eye. "I can kind of relate to how it feels like to lose someone that close to you"

Eri took of her star shaped hairclip from her long pink hair and smiled "I really thought I lost Shiki when I heard she died. The day I found out what happened, I couldn't help but cry all day and it even took me awhile to actually get over it…but…I was so happy when I found out that she was alive. I just really couldn't believe it"

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The time had finally come for Neku and the rest to head over to Kiyomizu-dera temple. At the temple, Shin was quietly waiting for his guests to arrive. Shiki was doing the same in a far-away corner and was surprised that he didn't tie her up or restrain her. That was probably because Shin still had the detonator and knew that Shiki wouldn't try anything risky.

"Hey" Shiki called out "Do you seriously think you're gonna get away with this?" She asked which made Shin stand up and look at her "No, I don't" He replied, making a confused yet shocked look appear on Shiki's face.

"I plan on dying here tonight whatever the outcome of the fight will be. My sister…was all the family I had left. My mom…dad…and everyone else were just trained assassins born to kill people. Now that I've lost her…I've got nothing left. That's why…it's my resolve to die here…because…it's the most fitting place for me. This place holds a lot of memories. When I was a kid, I used to play here with my sister all the time. Do you know the legend behind this place?" He asked but Shiki swayed her head.

"If you fall from the top floor of this place and survived…then you'll have your deepest wish granted. A few years ago when I was still playing here with my sister, I tried doing that although my sister stopped me at the last minute and knocked my head pretty hard while calling me a numbskull"

Hearing his calm and happy tone, Shiki could see a different side of Shin that time. Instead of feeling angry at him, that turned into a feeling of pity and sadness towards him. He didn't seem like a bad guy at all; he's just had an enormous amount of bad luck.

Moments later, both of them heard footsteps coming from the stairs and turned to see Hanekoma and the rest of the group who had noticed that Shin had removed his hooded cloak and was now dressed in a traditional ninja get-up.

"Now…" began Shin, "I'll fight a one-on-one battle with any of you. I don't care who it is just as long as it's only one person. If anyone tries to interrupt, I'll push the switch and this whole place goes up in flames. I'll give you five minutes" He said before turning away from the group who began discussing.

"I'll fight-" Neku began but was immediately interrupted by Eri "No, let me do it. I…wasn't able to do anything for Shiki before. And I even said something that hurt her feelings even before she died. I thought I would've regretted it for the rest of my life but she's still alive and she's right in front of me now. I couldn't do anything before…but now I can"

Hanekoma saw the determination in Eri's eyes and smiled "So that's your resolve? I see…Neku, I think it's best if we let Eri take care of this one" He said and Neku nodded without a second thought. He could also see the determination that Eri had. He'd never seen her like this before and it kind of reassured them that she could do it.

Before approaching Shin, Eri was reminded by Hanekoma of one more thing. During that game, pins weren't used but instead, he had to learn how to strengthen his own physical body. Noise didn't exist in that game but tasks requiring physical strength did. Shin already was an assassin in training but going through that game made him even stronger, so not having any pins wasn't much of a disadvantage for him.

"Before we start, if you win, then you get this girl back and I'll bother you no further but if I win…then I'll push this button" Everyone was shocked at the assassin's condition. Even if Shin won he'd still want to die anyway which was plain inhuman.

"Then…" Eri started "I've got no choice but to beat you. For everyone's sake, including yours" She said, causing Shin to grin at that statement.

"Well then, if that's how determined you are…let's begin!" Shin immediately jumped up in the air and threw a few kunai knives which were blocked by sudden ice pillars that rose from the ground. Eri could see Shin dashing towards her with a sword in hand so she quickly took one of the frozen kunai and blocked the incoming strikes until Shin decided to back off. "You're pretty good little lady. I didn't think you'd know how to use a knife"

An irritated Eri immediately flung a few icicles at the assassin who leaped backwards to dodge them "Quit the flattery and get moving. If you underestimate a girl then you're asking for a beating!" She yelled which made Shin grin at how easily she can be distracted. He had secretly planted smoke bombs while clashing with her a little while ago and decided to reveal them.

"You should learn to pay more attention, little girl!" The small smoke bombs suddenly exploded and left Eri in a cloud of smoke. Shin got ready to slash at her from behind and would've actually been successful if it weren't for a certain puddle of water which made him slip and lose his balance. Seeing his now revealed position, Eri immediately pushed him back with a strong kick.

"So, what were you saying about me paying more attention?" Eri asked sarcastically. Shin grinned once again when he finally realized where that puddle of water came from "You changed the ice back into water huh? I guess you _were_ paying attention after all"

Neku and co. were rather impressed by how the battle was going so far. Eri proved to be quite adequate in a head-on battle by what they've noticed.

Eri continued to stay alert because she had a feeling that shin wasn't fighting at the best of his abilities and it turns out that she was right about that hunch.

"Let's see how well you handle a doppelganger" Shin exclaimed and moments later, Eri could see another copy of the same enemy. Before Eri could even determine which one was the real foe, both clones sprinted towards her. Fighting both of them was tough and Eri's only option at the moment was to use multiple pillars to block out one copy so that she could focus on the other. However, even that strategy was pretty tough to pull off which eventually led Eri to use more energy than usual.

Hanekoma could clearly see that she was slowly tiring out "Eri needs to find a way to end this quickly or she won't stand a chance at the state she's in" He said before seeing Eri make a careless step which lead to her arm being hit by Shin's sharp blade.

Eri flinched and immediately backed up for more room. The teen gripped her bleeding arm and continued to think of a strategy but before she could get anywhere with her thinking, another copy ran straight towards her. She made multiple pillars rise once again but she'd completely forgot about the other copy which landed another strike, this time on her left leg which made her groan in pain.

"Eri!" Shiki called out, but stopped herself because she knew that she needed to have more faith in her best friend. Everyone else was also trying hard to stop themselves from interrupting the fight but they knew that it was all up to Eri this time.

The pink haired girl was now taking deep breaths as she tried hard to keep her balance due to her injured leg _"I don't have any other choice._ _I've only got one shot at this and if it fails…then I'm dead meat" _She thought to herself before closing her eyes in order to concentrate.

Shin saw that this was his chance and was about to move in for the final blow but something suddenly stopped him. The temperature of the whole area started to drop at an alarming rate which even made everyone start shivering due to the coldness.

Shin had failed to notice all the water throughout the area from the melted ice pillars which was a critical factor in Eri's plan. This would be the first time she would try something like this and she wasn't even sure if she had enough energy to pull it off. But still, desperate times called for desperate measures.

"PLEASE WORK!" She finally shouted as she slammed her hands on the water and froze every single drop of it into one giant pillar of crystal which even broke through the roof of the building and extended even farther. Shin dodged the pillar when it rose from the ground but that was only half of her plan.

Seeing that things were going smoothly, Eri suddenly changed the whole pillar back into water which started to fall like rain. Because of the severely cold temperature mixed with the water's **already** cold temperature **(because it had just changed from an ice pillar), **the rain drops quickly morphed back into solidified icicles which poured down on Shin like a hail storm.

"She won" Neku said with a grin. Apparently, only he, Ryou and Hanekoma could tell why and how she actually won but when the icy fog finally cleared out, everyone else could see the reason to her victory: Shin was now surrounded by fallen icicles that numbered in the hundreds. If Eri's plan was to kill him, then she would've aimed all those icicles directly at Shin's head, but merely surrounding him with the fallen ice was enough to get the message through.

"You win. Nicely done" Shin said which confirmed Eri's victory. Seeing that Shin had finally surrendered, Eri changed all the fallen pieces of ice back into its original liquid state. "I told you…I'd win…" Eri weakly said before ultimately falling unconscious due to exhaustion and her wounds. Everyone hurriedly rushed over to her to see if she was ok and thankfully, she just needed some rest and a little first aid (which came from Rhyme's healing ability from her zodiac pin).

Unnoticed, Shin took one last look at the group and headed over to the edge of the building and stood on the ledge. Shiki, who was still checking up on her unconscious friend, suddenly remembered the words that Shin spoke "_I plan on dying tonight whatever the outcome will be" _

Remembering those words, she quickly scanned the wide room for him and eventually found him standing on the ledge, ready to jump off the wooden bars.

"SHIN!!!" She called out, tears present in her eyes but it was too late for her to do anything. Shin turned his head around one last time and smiled before finally jumping off the enormous temple. With his eyes closed, he patiently waited for his body to hit the ground and eventually decay into the ground. He started recalling everything that had happened, with his sister being the last thing he thought off. "Reina…I'll be with you soon…" He mumbled as he continued to fall.

Suddenly though, Shin heard a loud flapping noise and opened his eyes to see Sanae Hanekoma who had caught him in mid-air. On his back were large, white, and heavenly wings which actually made Shin think he was in heaven for a few moments before realizing who had caught him.

"Don't throw your life away" Sanae began "Life is precious and your sister proved that by sacrificing herself just so you wouldn't get hurt. If you died now because of this idiotic thinking of yours, how do you think she'd feel about that?" He said with that everlasting calm tone of his.

After a few moments, tears stared to well up in Shin's eyes for he'd now realized how stupid he was for the last two years. He didn't want to burst out crying because that just wasn't how he was but still…he felt pretty happy now. It was like a heavy load was just lifted from his shoulders.

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The next day, Shin could no longer be seen although he'd promised Hanekoma that he would live his life without anymore regrets and even proposed that maybe he would join them someday as a player. But for now, he just wanted to re-organize his thoughts and make a new path for himself. He was greatly thankful to all of them for making him realize something that he had forgotten. Now, he holds a new resolve.

Neku and the rest proceeded to the train station along with the few new recruited players to head to their next objective at Akihabara where another round of the Angel's game waits. During their time in Kyoto, everyone, especially Eri and Shin, had realized a new resolve for themselves which they will use to grow stronger as a person.

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And we're finally done with chapter 10 of TWBWY. Once again, I hope you enjoyed and please don't forget to leave a helpful comment or two. Those things really helped me and my writing.

Also…this chapter is dedicated to my cousin who I believe is now in God's arms. Remembering him also helped me think of the ideas for this chapter so I know he's still helping me even when he's no longer with me. Well, I'll see you next time. Cheers!


	11. Battle in Akihabara Part one

Before we start, I'd just want to say that I haven't really done really thorough research on Akihabara so some places may be wrong. If you happen to know those places and the right spellings, location, etc. then please let me know. Ok, on to the story and don't forget to review k? Almost forgot, I've once again put the random skits back although it's something a little different and I'd like to hint out that two returning characters appear in this chap. Try to take a guess.

The World Begins With You  
Chapter 11: Battle in Akihabara *part 1*

* * *

"Back on the train again…and I was _just_ getting used to all the trees…" Neku sighed, remembering the admirable scenery of the peaceful Tokyo. In front of him was Shiki who sighed as well as she looked at the rapidly moving surroundings just outside the window.

"Yeah…I really wouldn't have minded another day or two but I guess we just have too much of a workload to take care of. It's a really good thing we're on winter break right now or things would've been even more hectic"

It wasn't just the two of them that felt like their stay was too short but everyone else did as well. Actually, almost everyone, because Ryou didn't seem to be bothered by that thought as he quietly read another book across Neku and Shiki's seats with a bored Eri who was playing with her cell phone in front of him.

"I hate train rides…there's always nothing to do…" The pink haired teen said before placing the phone back in her pocket. Hearing her voice, Shiki looked at her for a moment and remembered what had happened just a mere day ago.

"Eri…thanks for sticking up for me yesterday. I'm sorry I had to cause you so much trouble" The cap wearing girl apologized which made Eri smile genuinely at her. "There's not a single thing you should be sorry for, Shiki" She warmly replied and Neku nodded at that.

"She's right, you know. You made up your mind to be Shin's hostage for everyone's sake, even though you didn't even know what could've happened to you. If you wanna thank anyone, you can thank yourself" Shiki immediately brightened up at that praise and thanked both Neku and Eri although the boy once again told her to thank herself instead which made her giggle.

Noticing Shin's name during the conversation, Ryou closed the book and decided to bring up what was in his mind. "Do you…" He began "Do you think he'll ever join us? Shin, I mean" He said, as silently as always. Neku and co. gave that some thought and came up with a conclusion that he will…eventually anyway. "I see…I hope he does" Ryou finished before picking up his book and continuing where he stopped reading.

The group's attention was drawn away when they suddenly saw Mr. Mew happily walk by with a bag-full of potato chips in his hands. "H-Hey, where did you get that?" Shiki asked and the stuffed animal pointed at Beat and Rhyme who were eating the same brand of chips. Neku suddenly remembered that they bought about three bags back at the station although no one else wanted to buy though because they were saving most of their money for when they arrive at Akihabara. Apparently, Ryou had saved a whole _lot_ of money because he had heard an extremely helpful piece of advice about Akihabara.

Neku even saw a large black bag beside Ryou and knew right away what that was for "_This guy's really gonna go for it…" _The spiky haired teen thought to himself, a weird grin and a twitching eye present on his face.

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A few minutes later, the train finally made its stop at Akihabara. It was evening now and the building lights, paired up with the stars in the sky, shone brightly around the station. Neku checked the clock on his phone to find out that it was already 6:00 pm which instinctively made his stomach grumble.

When they heard the loud grumbling noise, Shiki and Eri couldn't help but chuckle at Neku until they heard their stomachs grumble as well "Umm…maybe…we should get something to eat first…" Shiki suggested as she hid her blushing face under her brown and wide hat

Before they decided on what to eat, Hanekoma thought he should alert the group of one thing before they head out. "Hey, guys. Take these" He instructed, handing multiple keys to Neku and the other players. "You're gonna need these if you're gonna stay in the dorm here tonight"

Hearing that statement, everyone remembered what Sanae had said even before the trip started.

(Flashback)

"I wanna tell you guys something interesting. Me and my angel buddies have decided that it'd be best if all the players stuck together to prevent any complications that can happen. That's why, we've put up dorms at both Akihabara _and_ Shibuya. If any other areas in Tokyo are picked for the game, then we'll start on them as well. You guys, along with Nana and a few other players, will still remain at Shibuya since it's kinda like our main HQ. The other recruits will be asked to stay at Akihabara. Of course, it's optional but it'd be safer this way AND more fun. Don't you think?"

Neku had to agree with that. It worked in a single bladed positive way. Staying with fellow players could prevent casualties because the more they are, the bigger the advantage and it would also be fun to stay with people that could _actually_ relate with what you're going through which is of course, battling the noise.

(End of flashback)

"Thanks, Mr. H. We'll head there once we're done eating. The next round's tomorrow, right? We should turn in early so we'd have all the energy we'll need" He said, giving it deep thought although Hanekoma laughed at his well planned strategy "Boss, you're probably giving it too much thought. Didn't I tell you before that the next round would start around 2:00 tomorrow afternoon? You can still explore a bit if you want then just wake up a lit' later tomorrow 'mornin" Hanekoma suggested before heading to the dorm in advance, followed by the other few recruited players from Kyoto who decided to head there as well.

Neku blushed in embarrassment for completely forgetting about the info concerning the next round _and_ for trying to act like a leader, making his friends let out another chuckle as he slapped his own forehead.

After finding a good sushi joint called Sushi Zami and spending a few minutes eating there, the touring teens explored around the wide and lively Akihabara, Neku and co. got to see numerous stores selling a good variety of technical equipment like computers and such. Another memorable sight was the widely popular maid café which they happened to pass by. Neku and Beat blushed at seeing the café and its servers although the girls quickly removed their flushed expressions with a few quick and painful knocks to the head.

"Argh! What the hell was that for?!" Neku complained to Shiki who grunted, "Nothing, nothing at all" She replied before quickly turning around and crossing her arms angrily.

Getting that punch to the head suddenly made Neku realize something; Ryou wasn't even part of the group anymore. Neku searched his surroundings but found everyone else _except_ the otaku-in-training which made Neku's head drop.

"He…couldn't have…" Shiki wondered what Neku was mumbling about but was distracted when they finally saw the violet haired boy, a black bag strapped around his shoulder which was already bulky and filled. That was the point when Shiki finally understood Neku's mumbling.

"I'm not even gonna ask what's in the bag anymore…" Neku silently said before the group resumed their tour.

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After a few more minutes, the group decided that it would be best for everyone to head back to the dorm and get some shut eye for the next day. It took awhile for them to pinpoint its location on the map but they eventually got it although there was some arguing here and there.

While they were walking back though, a strange yet threatening feeling struck Neku as he saw a familiar person pass him by. He thought he actually caught sight of the Seraph known as Jean Javier who walked passed him with a grin. Neku startlingly turned his head in that direction, but saw no one except the busy crowd and his friends.

"_I know that was him…or was I just seeing things?"_ The spiky head asked himself before making sure one last time. He was quite sure he'd seen the seraph because there weren't many people who wore an all white suit and had blonde hair and blue eyes to compliment it at the same time.

Seeing that he was going nowhere with all his thinking, Neku decided to put that thought on hold when he realized that his friends had been continuously calling out his name. "_Fine…guess I'll leave that alone for now"_

(At the dorm…)

Beat let out a loud yawn and stretched his arms as far as they could go "Man, Ima ready to hit da' sack, yo" He sleepily said before heading to his assigned room with Rhyme following behind. Beat demanded that his room be beside hers even though the only floor left with connecting rooms was the last floor.

Neku and the rest split up and went as well to their rooms which spread out around the whole dorm. The building was actually pretty impressive interiorly and exteriorly. Inside, there was a billiards table, an indoor basketball court, and other convenient things like a vending machine.

Neku opened his assigned door to see a spacious and white room complete with a TV set and a few pieces of furniture "How does Mr. H manage to do all this?" Neku mumbled, remembering all the humanly impossible feats that Hanekoma consistently accomplished.

The first thing Neku decided to do was to set his stuff down although he chose not to tidy up the room anymore since he was set to stay at the Shibuya dorm and not the one he was currently spending his stay at. Even though he wasn't even in the Shibuya dorm yet, he was already looking forward to it.

A few minutes later, he was sound asleep in his bed although that soundness didn't last for too long because a bad dream, concerning the devious seraph he thought he'd just passed by not so long ago, managed to wake him up and keep him that way.

"_Darn…I just can't stop thinking about it. Maybe I just need some fresh air…"_ He suggested to himself before getting out of bed and checking the clock posted on the wall. It was still only 3:30 AM which irritated Neku even more.

Exploring the dorm, Neku realized how impressive it was and decided to check it out even further. Another thing he found out was that there was an accessible rooftop on the last floor just like in a school. He opened the door to see a wide space with metal railings to prevent anyone from falling off.

Neku approached the railings and rested his arms on them as he stared at the overlooking view which turned out to be pretty nice and relaxing. There were multiple buildings surrounding one clear blue river that extended all throughout Akihabara. Neku thought that this was the best place to get some thinking done so he stayed there for a few minutes.

During his continuous chain of thought, a figure slowly snuck up behind him and grabbed his shoulders so fast that it made his head jerk just as quick. When he turned around to see who or what it was, the image of a smiling Shiki was immediately implanted on his brain, through his sight.

"Could you please not do that next time?" Neku irritatingly ordered, making his companion giggle as a response "So…" shiki began before resting her arms on the railings as well "Whatcha' doing here?" She asked although Neku once again shot with another one of his 'I could ask you the same thing' kind of look.

"Well, I couldn't really sleep much so here I am, I guess" She said before looking up at the sky. Neku never did tell her the reason of him being there but Shiki could tell that the cause was more or less similar to hers.

"Hey, Neku" She asked, gaining his attention although she stopped herself from saying anything else. Neku sensed the hesitation in his friend and thought that he should be the first to speak. "Look, if it's about that maid café thing-"

"N-No, it's not, dummy!" Shiki interrupted with a flushed face, making Neku ask her again what it was that she wanted to say. Shiki paused herself for a few more moments but eventually came out with it.

"Am I…a burden to you?" Neku became confused and surprised at hearing that question "What do you mean?" He replied, a concerned look on his face.

"It's just that…I'm always the one being saved by you guys instead of me actually doing the saving for once. It makes me feel so weak that I can't even help you guys any better…" She sadly explained.

Neku usually wasn't the person that could consistently give great advice but right now, the desire to help one of his first and closest friends in the whole world made the words come naturally to him "Don't ever think that, Shiki. You're important to all of us and you've helped us even more than you know. Hell, if it wasn't for you, I don't think I would've survived the reaper's game and change from that stupid person I once was"

Hearing those words sounded like a sweet lullaby to her ears and the cap wearing girl couldn't help but let out a few tears as she tried to cover her face with her hat. "Do you…really mean it…?" She asked with a few sniffles in between. Neku nodded with a small smile before replying "Have I ever lied to you?"

Finally, Shiki wiped her tears away and had that same recognizable smile that she always had "Well, there were a few times" She joked, causing both of them to laugh whole heartedly "You really don't know how to show appreciation huh?" Neku joked as well before changing the topic.

"So, do you think your parents will let you stay at the dorm when we get back to Shibuya" Neku said and Shiki removed her arms from the railing and tapped her index finger on her chin, giving the question some thought "Yeah, I'm sure they will. I've proved myself enough times already that I'm a responsible teenager so I don't think they'll worry. I'm kind of excited already to start living with all of you. That is, if you're all gonna live at the dorm too"

Neku assured her that he was gonna stay at the dorm as well since he'd been living by himself for who knows how long. He also had a good feeling that the others would decide to unpack at the dorm as well.

The two continued to talk for a little while longer on topics that didn't even concern the angel's game anymore. It just felt more comfortable to talk about normal things that people their age would always chat about instead of the usual mind-bending talk about noise, soulless and everything else related.

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(That morning…)

Neku got up with an excited and anxious feeling inside his head "_Finally, the next round"_ He thought before putting his jacket on and wrapping his blue graffitied headphones around his neck. For the first time ever, he'd woken up even later than 10:00 and had long passed breakfast already.

Looking at the time, Neku decided that he'd go get some early lunch instead. Hanekoma had reminded him last night that if he were to go somewhere, he needed to make sure he was back by 1:00 for a sortie on the next mission for the angel's game.

Neku exited his temporary room, walked across the narrow hallway and was about to go down the stairs when he saw Shiki who was currently getting a drink from the ever-convenient vending machine on a corner.

"Morning" He greeted and Shiki immediately turned around to greet him back before getting the canned soda that had now come out of the machine.

"So you just woke up too, huh Neku? I guess we really didn't get that much sleep last night"

Neku agreed to that before the two heard something grumble. Just as they expected, the sound came from the black stuffed cat that was currently being held in Shiki's arms "Sorry, big sis…I had to skip breakfast too since you weren't awake yet, so I'm kinda hungry…" Mr. Mew replied, ears already drooping down which made his owner apologize and promise to make it up to him with some good sushi.

(At Sushi Zami…)

Mr. Mew was now inside Shiki's 'disguise' bag once again, happily gobbling up some sushi that was occasionally put inside the pink piece of leather.

Coincidentally, Eri and the rest were also having their lunch at Sushi Zami when Neku and Shiki came in "So, what took you guys so long to get up?" Eri asked "Did you have so many nightmares that you couldn't even go back to bed anymore?"

The two decided that it was best to keep their late night chat a secret. If any of them found out, they might start again with their endless amount of bickering. Well, everyone except Ryou who took no part whatsoever in any bickering or blabbing that ever took place.

"Well, anyway" Neku said "Where did the other players go?" Ryou took a bite from his food before answering that question "They're preparing for the mission. Seraph Hanekoma said this mission would be something that involved different target locations. We're to head to the town square as well at 12:00"

"12:00? Why didn't I hear anything about that" Shiki complained although Eri quickly reminded her why she didn't get any word of that info "What were you doing around 9?" Eri replied and even though it was a question, it worked just as well as an answer.

After eating, the group took off for Akihabara square where they met up with Hanekoma and the rest of the few veteran players. Seeing that they were all prepared, Hanekoma started the sortie "Now that we're all here, let's start. First of all, I'd like to introduce our operations leader for today. His name's Kyo Senkaku and he's one of the players from Kyoto"

The man looked like he was in his early twenties' and had yellow spiky hair paired up with brown eyes and a fair skin tone. He looked about as tall as Hanekoma and as calm and composed as well. One thing that confused the group was that he had a sort of sniper rifle strapped to his back.

"Just like Sanae said, my name's Kyo and I'll be the operations leader" The man said, distinguishing his rather calm sounding voice. Apparently, an operations leader was needed because the current mission concerned a heavily large amount of noise and soulless which had escaped the Angel Plane and wondered off to multiple areas around Akihabara. As they spoke, the hostiles continued to multiply at a very rapid pace.

Much to Neku's irritation, this mission greatly benefited the angels for research purposes. They needed to know why the noise chose a place like Akihabara and _how_ that place caused them to multiply so rapidly. In a sense, Neku and his allies really were like lab rats in an experiment.

Neku once again swayed his eyes over to the rifle mounted on the leader's back, causing Kyo to realize that the orange haired boy was curiously staring at it "Oh this?" He began "It works just like your headphones do. It's got burst rounds in it and can even lock-on targets"

Neku could comprehend the part about the burst rounds but he didn't know how Kyo knew that Neku used his headphones during battle "I'm guessing you're wondering how I knew about the headphones, right? One more thing this gun can do is analyze and detect any 'Soul' or noise energy in the area. Works great for tactical use"

After Kyo's detailed explanation, Hanekoma continued with his own "Now, about the infected areas. There are three places in total that need some exterminating: Suehirocho, Sotokanda and kandaneribeicho. Since we have about 19 players right now, we'll divide the group into six members each"

Sanae thought for a moment on where to deploy the players. Kyo had to stay with Hanekoma for tactical purposes so that meant that there were 18 players to send out to those areas.

Neku, along with Shiki, Ryou, Eri, Beat, and Rhyme were chosen to go to Suehirocho while the other players were deployed to the rest of the areas.

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When Neku's team finally arrived at Suehirocho, Kyo contacted them through their cells just to make sure of the objectives "Ok, now let me tell you about the new chip that Sanae installed in your phones. It's called a 'Pathway' and it's way more effective then using your valued possessions to find the noise. First, use the noise tracker in your phones then once you get a signal, look for the 'Pathway' button on your phones and then push it. There should be some noise where you are. Give it a try"

Neku confirmed the instructions and hung up, followed by the group using the noise tracker to scan around. After a short moment, their phones started beeping, meaning that there were some hostiles in the area. "Okay, let's see what this thing can do" Neku muttered before pressing the 'Pathway' found on his phone's menu. Soon after, the group was brought to another new plane. This time, Neku could actually pass through people like a ghost.

"Whoa! Dis' is friggin' awesome, yo!" Beat said with an amazed tone as he rapidly walked back and forth through a person like a curious child until his kid sister finally told him to stop. Seeing that they were now in position, Kyo once again contacted them "The plane you're in right now is the spirit plane. It's a plane that the noise and soulless use as a bridge to move from a person's 'Soul' to other planes and vice versa. Better keep your guard up because I'm detecting a whole buncha them where you are"

And just like Kyo had suspected, Noise were roaming all around like bugs in a kitchen that hadn't been cleaned in months. They were on top of the buildings, under cars, flying in the air, and even crawling through the streets.

"This…is gonna take awhile…" Neku mumbled before putting his headphones on and firing rapid force rounds. Everyone else released their zodiac pins and got to work as well.

Up on a building not so far from the battle, the _'gentleman_' Seraph stood quietly on the edge as he observed the battle taking place "Things…are going smoothly, Hmhmm" Jean said before heading off to check on the other areas.

Meanwhile, Hanekoma and Kyo were observing the battles as well although there was one thing that made them wonder "Sanae, take a look at these patterns" Kyo said, handing Hanekoma a red-lined map of Akihabara which he quickly took a look at "Hmm…I didn't think the noise were smart enough to draw a sigil like this" He said although with further observation, he realized something that managed to make his eyes widen "Damn! This is-!"

Finally, Neku's team and the other two teams had finished off the last of the noise but something still bothered Neku. During the battle, he'd noticed large black graffiti around the area that looked suspicious in every angle. Little did they know, that was something the noise had planned from the very start.

Neku suddenly heard his phone ring, making him answer the call and immediately hear Hanekoma's panicked voice "GET OUTTA THERE NOW! IT'S A TRAP!" But it was too late. The sigil drawn on the streets of Suehirocho suddenly lit up like a bomb and exploded in an instant, taking the whole district with it.

"NEKU! RESPOND! NEKU!" Hanekoma called out loudly, hoping that the blast didn't take them out completely. A few seconds passed, but there was still no response. Doubts began to pass both his and Kyo's minds but they still decided to wait a little longer. Fortunately, a voice was finally heard after all that waiting.

"Yeah, yeah…quit your whining already Mr. H. That ain't like you at all" Neku suddenly spoke out from the phone, making the middle-aged man sigh and smile "Well…in life, anything can happen. It's great that you're still intact though"

The blast actually would've taken them out as well if it wasn't for Rhyme's zodiac pin. Not only was it great for healing, but it could also surround targets with a barrier so indestructible, it could earn the title of the ultimate defense. Everything else was reduced to dust except for Neku and co. who were still in the vicinity of the transparent barrier.

"Great job, Rhyme!" Eri praised with a pat to the 13-year old's shoulder. Seeing that they were no longer in danger, Rhyme disengaged the barrier by letting go of her bell shaped pendant. "Thanks! Good thing I had this, huh?"

Everyone was relieved to still be alive although there was one person who wasn't even thinking of herself at the moment. Shiki looked around her and saw nothing but rubble. Everything _and_ everyone had been reduced to mere debris, rubble and dust.

"There's…nothing left…everyone's…gone" She mumbled, a fearful expression on her face which made Neku realize that as well. Even though they were in a different plane, he didn't know why the blast affected the RG as well.

"Neku…" Shiki began as she gripped the boy's arm "What's going on …?" She hoped for an answer from her friend, but he couldn't think of anything. All everyone could do was look around them and wonder just what happened. Their former relief had turned into anger and regret as they looked at the district. Unfortunately, nothing was left of Suehirocho. It was just a plain wasteland now. Hanekoma told Neku that the other two areas had experienced the same fate which angered him even more. "At least" Sanae said "All the players are still alright. They managed to get away from the blast as well…"

No one was satisfied with that answer, especially not Neku. Even though they were like the angel's pawns in a chess game, Neku still wanted to at least save those who weren't even involved in the game. He knew that the next day, this tragedy would be on the news and the reporters would probably say it was a suicide bombing attempt since they didn't even know the noise, angels, or soulless even existed.

Everyone just wanted to go back and rest, but unfortunately, their task wasn't done yet. In front of them, a black human figure stood with a grin on his face as he clapped his hands in applause. "My, my...this is some pretty big damage"

The figure looked as terrifying as the devil himself. He had black skin and hair, red eyes, and graffiti all over his body that looked like it was done by some madman.

"Who the hell are you?" Neku suspiciously questioned as he held up a shockwave gun at the black demon. "Me? Let's just say I'm still what you call noise. It's just that I'm part human now of course" The being replied, revealing its deep and intimidating voice.

Without even letting the demon continue talking, Neku fired a barrage of force rounds all at once at which the black noise grinned at.

"You actually think that'll work?" The noise shielded himself with his arm and when the bullets finally made contact, they couldn't even make a dent on the being's arm. "_What the hell? It didn't even scratch him"_

The horrific demon let out a similarly terrifying laugh before putting his arm forward and much to everyone's surprise, firing the same kind of force rounds that Neku had just shot. Rhyme quickly acted, once again grasping her pendant and shielded all of them from the flurry of blasts with an indestructible barrier.

Unknowing to the demon, another shot was fired from behind and managed to come in contact with the demon's back. When the large bullet hit, it broke off into multiple smaller bullets which swarmed around the enemy and eventually hit it. Unfortunately, that didn't work either.

Neku turned around to see the operations leader who had a serious look on his face. Judging from that attack and that the rifle was currently in Kyo's hands, everyone concluded that the large shot came from him.

"Everyone" Kyo said "This guy…came from that sigil on the street. That was a summoning sigil but unlike the others. This kind's more of a ritual and it needs a sacrifice because of that" Neku had a feeling where Kyo was going with that statement. There wasn't anything else to sacrifice except the noise and the people in the area. "Then that means…the noise and the people caught in that explosion were all…"

Kyo nodded, predicting what Neku was about to say "That's right. They were all sacrifices. You guys would've been part of them if you were caught too"

Finally, with his fist greatly shaking in anger, Neku charged directly at the demon with a killing intent "BASTARD!!" He yelled before a light surrounded him and turned him into his noise counterpart. The red-eyed figure with a noise-like arm greatly interested the black demon as they clashed.

"Oho, what's this? I see you've got a little bit of noise yourself. However, what makes you think it's enough?!" The demon grabbed Neku's arm before it reached him and gave the boy a strong punch to the gut. Before Neku could even gasp for air, a kick connected with his face and knocked him a few feet flat on his back.

The demon sensed another presence nearby and moved his head just in time to dodge a stab from a flaming sword. Ryou tried to land a few more swipes and stabs before getting knocked down himself. The demon didn't know however, that it was a diversion so that everyone else could launch their attacks at the demon all at once. Before he knew it, the demon was now surrounded by incoming whirlwinds, ice pillars, beams and burst rounds that it would normally be impossible to dodge all of them.

Even though the situation looked bleak for him, the black human-like figure grinned before summoning a transparent barrier that made all those numerous attacks useless. Rhyme confirmed that ability to be her own and wondered why the noise in front of them could do that. Kyo remembered that Neku's rounds were also copied which meant one thing: That particular noise had the ability to copy other pin attacks.

Meanwhile, 2 more black noise just like the one in Suehirocho had appeared in the other two areas which were now left in ruins. The players couldn't possibly top the demon's power but there was one angel that had more than enough power to fight back.

In the Sotokanda district, Hanekoma now stood before the noise with a confident grin on his face "Sorry, but I don't think you'll last against me" The calm man said before adjusting his shades. The demon laughed at Hanekoma's confidence and narrowed his eyes "I might not be able to handle you alone, but I've got two other buddies that'll help me"

Hanekoma narrowed his eyes as well and grinned "Sorry to break it to ya' but your pals have their hands full right now. In Suechiro, there's a certain boy there who can even control a fraction of the noise's powers. In Kandaneribeicho, Well…let's just say I've set up a little surprise there" The demon thought that Hanekoma was bluffing but unfortunately for him, he wasn't bluffing one single bit.

At the third area, three people surrounded the final black noise. One of them was confirmed to be Sho Minamimoto who cracked his knuckles with a threatening grin. The other two were confirmed to be very familiar faces during the reaper's game in shibuya. One was a man who had thick orange hair, a cocky yet lazy expression on his face but the most distinguishable feature was that he had a lollipop hanging by his mouth. The other was a girl with pink hair, a wild expression on her face and a small gun in hand.

"Kariya, Uzuki, you guys ready?" Sho asked his two companions who nodded with excited smiles on their faces "Don't you know it" Uzuki replied before pointing her gun at the noise.

"Well then, LET"S KICK SOME YOCTOGRAM ASS!"

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So are your guesses on the returning characters correct? If so, then congratz (No prizes given though…) Ok, just like I said before the chapter started, the random skits will now be returning with the first one starting right about…now

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Shiki: Hello everyone and welcome to the first broadcast of "The Show Ends With You!" I'm Shiki Misaki and beside me is my broadcast partner, Neku!

Neku: Uhh…hey, I'm Neku Sakuraba…

Shiki: _Come on, Neku. Show a little more enthusiasm_

Neku: _I'm trying, darnit. I'm just not a broadcast type of person!_

Shiki: Ehem…well anyway, tonight we'll be interviewing a very special guest. A round of applause for the math wiz himself, Sho Minamimoto!

Sho: Huh? Wait a minute, how'd I get here? Last thing I remember I was eating pie…

Neku: *Hides a baseball bat* No comment on that…

Shiki: So, Sho what's it like to have a super-powered brain with an IQ of 180?

Sho: Oh it's zetta sweet! Think of all the math tests you'd be able to ace with only five minutes of studying

Neku: _F-Five minutes?! Is this guy insane? _Well…doesn't anyone ever get jealous of you and…you know…try to beat you up or something?

Sho: Are you kidding? No one even dares to try that stuff on me anymore. Ever seen that news headline where some guy had his jaw horribly torn up that he couldn't even eat anything by himself for a whole year?

Shiki: Y-Yeah…I think I've heard of- wait…don't tell me YOU"RE the one who did that to him

Sho: *Nods*

Neku: _Shiki…we're interviewing a maniac here…_

Shiki: _I agree…let's just get this over and done with…_

Neku: So, uhh…any other interests besides solving equations and stuff like that?

Sho: Well, there's this one hobby that I recently started doing ever since I watched the SAW movies. Ever heard of em'?

Shiki: Ergh…I don't even try watching them…it's just really gross…

Sho: Well, I've been trying to build some kinda torture machine too. I'm still in the process of figuring out how to dislocate a shoulder while breaking a foot while I'm at it but…I kinda need a test subject for that. You guys wanna try?

*Neku and Shiki quickly speed off the set*

Sho: Guess they don't want *Looks at the cameramen and audience* How bout' you guys?

*Everyone else in the room quickly speeds off as well*

Sho: Kill-joys…


	12. Battle in Akihabara Part two

Before we start this 'action-filled' chapter, I'd like to give a big thanks to ravenunknown (konanakt) for the really long and detailed advice. I'll take that advice and all other pieces of advice to heart and make the story better than ever.

This chapter was really hard to write because I'm not so experienced at writing long battle scenes. If anything looks wrong, feel free to leave a suggestion and I'll get right to it. Also, I recently just realized that I wrote on chapter three "A beam came out of Shiki's pin" during a battle scene. Well actually, I forgot that you actually wear the pins and not hold them out in front of you…epic fail. So, I'm just saying that now, Everytime Mr. Mew turns into a pin, Shiki wears it instead of holding it out.

The World Begins With You

Chapter 12: Battle in Akihabara *part 2*

Three battles are about to commence in Akihabara. In Suehirocho, Neku, along with his friends, battle it out against an unknown type of noise that can copy pin attacks completely. In Kandaneribeicho, Sho and the two former reapers, Koki Kariya and Uzuki Yashiro, fight against another similar black noise. Finally, In Sotokanda, a lone Sanae Hanekoma confidently stands against the last black figure. The other two noise's abilities are still unknown at present.

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Up in the sky, Beat was diving down with full force, hoping to completely crush the enemy below him "Have somma' this ya' friggin' punk!" With the amount of gravity and the force of Beat's wind, he thought it might have enough force to break through the barrier, but much to his irritation, the transparent shield once again blocked the all-out strike from above and flung Beat off his skateboard. The blonde teen would've hit the pavement hard if it weren't for his skateboard which immediately slid under his feet and caught him in mid-air.

"It's like that board's got a remote," Eri commented before switching her focus back to the enemy. Apparently, the group had tried three strategies already although none of them had seemed to work. The barrier that was copied from Rhyme was just too strong to penetrate. Thankfully though, everytime the noise would attack, Rhyme would also reciprocate with her own barrier. It was more of a neck-en'-neck battle right now.

Behind the demon, a noise arm and a flaming sword came in contact and clashed with the barrier. Neku and Ryou tried driving their weapons even further, but they were rejected by the barrier as well and instead, the force they inflicted rebounded to them and sent them a few feet back.

Seeing that almost nothing seemed to work, Neku decided to analyze what he'd seen so far "_Okay…don't panic. There's gotta be a way to break through that thing. We need a force even stronger then an explosion since even THAT wasn't enough to break Rhyme's barrier…"_

Before Neku could think anymore, the human-like noise let out an intentional yawn "You guys are boring. I might as well just get serious now" That phrase managed to surprise his enemies. Neku and the rest thought that he already _was_ serious.

The hostile decided that it was time to reveal yet another ability he had under his sleeve. He pushed both arms forward and suddenly, ice pillars shot from the left and a large whirlwind shot from the right and headed straight for Eri and Shiki. Seeing that Rhyme was already tiring out, Ryou quickly used his 'massive hit' psych and used the large blade like a fan to blow the whirlwind unto the creeping ice pillars, smashing them together. Even though it was an act worth of praise, using the large-scale psych once again put a strain on his body and he soon found himself kneeling on one knee, trying to catch his breath.

"_Damn…Ryou and Rhyme can't keep up any longer. If this goes on, we're in hot water" _Neku thought to himself before he finally realized what the noise's other ability was. He could copy abilities _and _use two of them at once. At the start of the battle, their enemy had only been using one at a time so it was surprising that he actually could unleash two simultaneously.

Ryou was more like a sitting duck now which the black noise quickly took advantage of by firing yet another whirlwind from his right, and creeping pillars from his left. He'd forgotten however, that he was outnumbered 7-1. Beat and Eri rushed in front of Ryou and retaliated with their own attacks. Eri summoned pillars to combat the similar blocks of incoming ice and Beat, with a quick twirl in mid-air, shot a whirlwind which headed straight for the other blast of wind.

Instead of colliding on impact, the attacks merely vanished when they came in contact, confusing everyone including the enemy himself. There was one person though who quickly took note of that as he rallied his teammates together. "Hey, guys" Kyo began "I think I've got an idea"

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Meanwhile, in Kandaneribeicho…

"Grrr…there's no end to these twerps!!" An irritated Uzuki yelled as she shot flower shaped bullets at a seemingly never ending sea of noise. At the start of the fight, the enemy (which was female this time) already revealed his ability which is to summon a huge amount of noise in a short amount of time. Everytime the group would finally get rid of the surrounding noise, a new batch would immediately be summoned to protect their master.

It seemed that the three former reapers needed something that could blast the noise over a wide radius. "Hey, lemme try something" Kariya smiled before firing three yellow balls into the air. When they finally hit the ground, they exploded like bombs, taking out a big number of the noise at once.

Unfortunately, the massive attack wasn't enough to annihilate all the noise that surrounded the main enemy. This of course, opposed Sho's plan which was to remove the 'small-fry' noise in order to get a direct hit on the 'Big cheese' without any interruptions. Seeing that the plan wasn't going so smoothly, Kariya sighed and finally took the stick of bean paste out of his mouth and threw it to the ground "We're gonna need to give it our all here" He said, his expression finally changing into a serious one.

And at the snap of a finger, more noise was summoned by the black, long-haired demon who had a lingering smirk on her face. "It's useless. I've seen all your moves and there's nothing that would take them out all at once" She said although Sho blankly laughed at that "Who the digit ever said we showed you all our moves? Everything we did so far wasn't even serious play!"

The black-clad teen then turned to his partners and grinned "Ready for the big finish?" he asked, gaining confident nods as a reply.

With a smugged look on his face, Sho drew a taboo summoning sigil in a matter of seconds. He then slammed his hands on the sigil, causing it to surround Sho in a black light which revealed the form he'd used to fight even Joshua in the reaper's game. Even though he lost to the composer, the form was still pretty powerful.

"Don't think..." Sho began as he clenched his now black fist "Don't think you're the only one who can mess around with noise!" The evil genius let out a loud shout which was even enough to send a chill down his enemy's spine.

"Kariya, Uzuki, go for it!" The math wiz ordered and a blue flash suddenly surrounded the two former reapers "Soul Unison!" They yelled simultaneously before stretching out one arm and firing into the sky, a single shot in the shape of a large flower with 8 petals. At one point, the petals detached themselves and quickly dropped to the ground, creating explosions as large as Kariya's only even more numerous this time around.

Due to the sheer number of explosions, the main target was now defenseless with only a few pieces of noise left. Her eyes caught sight of the grim heaper who was now running towards her at the speed of a race car, ramming through all the intercepting noise until he was finally right in front of her. Before she could even summon any more noise, Sho drove his arm right through his foe "So zetta slow!" With that final catch phrase, he forced his arm out of the noise, turning it into a distorted image before finally vanishing.

"Well" Kariya said as took out another lollipop "That takes care of that". As he began sucking the juice out of it, his other two companions wondered just where he keeps all of those stick snacks. "Hey, uhh...could I get one of those?" Sho asked his lollipop loving friend who adjusted his yellow shades. "Nope, these are all mine" He replied, making Sho shoot with an angry stare before finally giving up "So zetta stingy..."

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At Kandaneribeicho, it looked like Hanekoma was merely toying around with his enemy, making it attack again and again although failing in the end. With his large and white wings, Sanae swayed away each time and eventually drove the noise to his boiling point. "I've had it with you! Just die already you stupid prick!!" The black figure shouted before firing a massive ball of fire that sort of resembled a meteor.

Everything went as the seraph had planned it. He wanted his enemy to reveal his abilities before making a move himself. He figured that the best way to do that is to of course, piss your enemy off until he finally cracks. Seeing that the noise had no hassling abilities, Hanekoma grinned and used his fist to literally knock the meteor back at the demon, countering its very effort.

The hostile was now no longer a threat as he tried to move his now paralyzed body. Hearing Hanekoma's footsteps, he forced his head up to see the angel standing over him. As the noise's eyes focused on his, the paralyzed foe let out a weakened laugh "It doesn't matter if I'm gone. The noise belongs to no one now. Not to the angels and definitely not the humans. Both the angel plane...and the RG...will d-" Before he could finish his threat, he was immediately erased by a white scythe that was plunged through his body.

"Scum like you shouldn't exist. All of you...should be erased" Hanekoma muttered with a serious tone as he gripped the scythe's long handle and made it fade away into the wind.

After about a moment of staring at the spot where he'd slain the black noise, he finally left the area to help whoever was still in need of assistance.

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Back at Suehirocho, Kyo's team continued to battle against the final and most powerful of the three noise. His ability to copy pin abilities has proved to be a pain in the neck so far, but there was a key factor that Kyo had analyzed. "And that's the plan" The rifleman concluded, impressing everyone at the strategist's abilities. The plan was more of a desperate experiment but still, no one could think of a better plan. "Nothing passes by a sniper's eye. Well, you guys know what to do so let's get to it"

The final noise soon got tired of all the blabbering and decided to land the first strike "You guys should be thankful I gave you a little time to chat, but I don't think it'll do you any good!" The dark being said before releasing another pair of ice and wind at the group. Kyo signalled Eri and Beat to retaliate with their own abilities, causing both sides to vanish once again. Right now, neither side knew the cause of that effect but the operations leader decided to take a chance.

Behind the abomination, Ryou once again attacked with one final 'massive hit' although was interrupted by a skill just as deadly. Once again, that same effect occurred although it was only Ryou's flames that disappeared and not the sword itself. At that point, the enemy had finally realized the cause of those rebound effects but it was already too late. Rushing at full speed, Beat charged along with Rhyme who waited eagerly on the rear end of the skateboard. When they got close enough, the blonde girl activated her barrier and clashed it with the noise's own, making both protective shields vanish completely.

Seeing that Kyo's plan had been a success so far, Shiki proceeded to stun the enemy with a black beam that came from her hands. "Neku, it's all on you now! Get him before he recovers!" Kyo ordered to Neku who was already heading straight for the enemy. With one loud shout, he infused his noise arm with a vicious yellow energy and with one full-powered slice; created a fatal wound on the enemy's torso.

"Heh, my plan worked just fine. Geez, that took a lotta work though" Kyo sighed as he took a seat on the rough ground, feeling like he'd just won a tournament. In front of the fatally wounded noise, Neku stood over with the intention of finally finishing him off. "You're…pretty strong, kid. I guess…the noise really has…an effect on you. How bout I…make your power even stronger!" Neku could sense that he was planning something so he quickly tried to finish him off.

Unfortunately, he didn't make it in time before the noise suddenly gripped Neku's noise arm and gave it all the power it had left. After that, the enemy finally vanished but not before saying his dying words "Soon…you will be part of us…"

After finally seeing his enemy disappear, Neku felt an excruciating pain emanate from his infected arm. Soon, that pain spread to Neku's whole body which made him scream out loud.

"Neku! Hey, what's wrong?! Neku?!" Shiki worriedly called out but the boy could only reply with pained moans which only made her worry deepen.

Finally, Neku gathered enough strength to let out one single warning "Shiki…everyone…get out of here!" He yelled but that only made everyone do the exact opposite of what he had just said. Little by little, Neku could feel like he was losing himself as he struggled to keep the pain in place. Sadly, the pain just grew worse until he finally opened his red eyes and let out a loud scream, creating a ground shaking tremor that spread across the whole Akihabara. Along with the tremor, a red blinding light surrounded Neku. When Shiki's vision finally returned, her eyes widened in shock at what caught her eye.

Both of Neku's arms were now identical in the sense that they were both noise infected. In addition to that, half of his face was now pure black and the reddish color in his eyes were so deep that it almost resembled blood. His teeth had grown sharp fangs which he threateningly showed to his shocked friend.

"Neku…what's happened to you?" Shiki asked but instead of replying, Neku challenged her reflexes by suddenly swinging his clawed arm at her. Quickly acting, Rhyme interrupted with a barrier and blocked the strike although it was so strong that it even cracked it and sent her and Shiki into the air and unto Beat who managed to catch them before they hit the ground. Neku fired a yellow ball at the blonde acrobat, but he swayed his skateboard to the left and sped off before Neku could actually get a hit. It was rather difficult to maneuver in mid-air while carrying two people but Beat managed to pull through.

"What the hell's happening?" Kyo thought aloud as he stood up. Now beside him were Hanekoma and the three former reapers who all had serious expressions on their faces "It's the noise inside him" Hanekoma said "His body's being overloaded with power through his arm and it's expanding to his whole body" Hanekoma then took out his noise tracker and analyzed Neku who was now shooting yellow balls at random, destroying all cars and buildings that it hits. The results from scanning the berserk Neku only added to his fear.

Beat had now arrived with Shiki to regroup with the rest. As soon as they landed, Shiki immediately got off the board and headed towards Sanae Hanekoma "Mr. H, what's happening to Neku?!" Shiki interrupted, making the angel adjust his shades "Right now, Neku's state of mind is kind of identical to a low levelled noise: A being whose intent is to just erase and erase. We…need to do something quickly. If we don't, Neku could end up killing himself due to the ocean of energy that just keeps growing"

"But-" Rhyme began "How're we supposed to stop him? When I used my pin, he even managed to crack the barrier which was something even all of us _combined_ couldn't do…"

Hanekoma gave it some deep thought as he continued to observe Neku who was still running rampant on everything near him. Suddenly though, he caught sight of where everyone was hiding and fired a barrage of fireballs at the group. Hanekoma quickly stepped forward and with a white scythe in hand, he deflected the shots back to Neku by spinning his scythe at a breathtaking speed. Because of the attack, Neku was stunned for awhile, leaving Hanekoma with more time to think.

"This isn't good. He's completely lost it. We only have two options right now. One: Kill him or Two: Control his 'Soul' directly. I'm sure you guys would hate to try option number one so let's go with option two" As Hanekoma began thinking, everyone anxiously waited for a plan. Even the operations leader was clueless at this point so everything rested on the sole knowledge of Hanekoma. Finally, after a moment of thinking, his brain came up with an idea.

"Here's the plan, Neku's going berserk right now but that doesn't mean he's become totally brainless. That human side of him's still fighting for a way out. What he needs to do is to calm down long enough for me and Sho to activate a noise summoning sigil. Once we do that, I'll draw all the excess power from Neku back into the sigil. Finally, I'll need Ryou to burn it so that the energy will never come back out. The problem is, we need something or someone to calm him down"

Before Hanekoma even begun to think about that, Shiki stepped forward with a determined look on her face "Let me do it" She said "I'll find a way to calm him down" Even though it was a bold proposal, Eri wholeheartedly refused because it was also an extremely risky one.

"But you could probably die! How're you so sure you'll be able to get it done?" She asked but Shiki continued to insist. "Eri, please you have to let me do this. If I don't…then Neku will die! Please, I need you to trust me!" She begged. Eri stared at her determined eyes for a moment and then realized: She wasn't about to back down. She would most likely do it anyway even if the whole group tried to stop her.

Seeing that there was no way to convince her friend, Eri sighed, hoping that she knew what she was doing "Alright…I trust you. But you better come back in one piece you hear me?" She asked and the cap wearing girl nodded.

Now that everything was settled, Hanekoma ordered Sho, Ryou, Beat, and Shiki to come along with him to stop Neku from doing something he'll regret his whole life, if he survives that is.

When they approached the berserk-gone Neku, he quickly snarled at them, ready to attack at anytime. Gathering up some courage, Shiki stepped forward and continued to slowly walk towards Neku. "Are you ready, Mr. Mew?" She asked her stuffed companion who nodded then turned into a round, black shield which Shiki took into her hands. As she slowly approached the orange-haired teen, she also tried talking to him and hoped that his human side would still be there. "Neku it's me, Shiki. Don't you remember?" She calmly said, but was replied with a shot from Neku's arm. Using the shield, she deflected the attack and continued walking towards him.

"I know you're still there, Neku. Please, you have to fight it" Her words were slowly, but surely getting into Neku's head. He still continued to fire but there was something that was slowly changing. His shots were getting less accurate and weaker at the same time. His noise side was also fighting to keep control of the body so Shiki decided to keep doing what she was doing.

"You're stronger than this, Neku. You always find ways to solve any problem you'd find. No matter how hard or how hopeless the situation seemed, you always got through it in the end" As she continued to speak, both sides of Neku struggled for control of the body. Neku tried as hard as he could to get rid of the berserk noise that was lingering inside him.

Even though she was already tiring out from defending against all the attacks that shot at her, Shiki continued on "You can't lose now, Neku. In the reaper's game, you never gave up and even till' now, you never have. Neku…you've gotta fight it!" She shouted before holding her ground against one more vicious shot. Finally, the shield turned back into its former appearance, now completely and utterly exhausted "Sorry…big sis. I'm…completely wiped out…"

Even when Shiki's only source of protection was gone, Neku still hadn't taken control yet as another shot was being prepared from his infected arms. Shiki closed her eyes and braced herself, still hoping that Neku would come back. She waited and waited, but nothing happened. Slowly, she opened her brown eyes to see a still berserk Neku whose arms were now trembling greatly. Seeing this, Shiki realized that Neku hadn't given up yet and was still fighting. Now, he'd managed to at least make the attack stop, but was still struggling immensely.

Another hint of progress was that he was finally able to say something other than pained moans and shouts. "Shi…ki…" he managed to whisper out as he continued to stop himself from attacking. Now that she was close enough, Shiki took a few more steps and finally embraced the teen.

"It's alright" She began "You…can come back to us now" At hearing those comforting words and feeling the warmth from his first friend, Neku now had enough control to make his arms cease their trembling and remain as steady as a tree trunk. His expression was also less aggravated now and his aggression slowly disappeared.

Fortunately, Hanekoma and Sho had now created the large and complicated summoning sigil. Putting every ounce of focus into his work, Hanekoma put one hand on the sigil and made the center of the circle graffiti, where Neku and Shiki currently were, glow a shining blue light that surrounded the two.

"It worked…good zetta grief…" Sho tiredly said as he tried to catch his breath. When the light finally vanished, Neku had now returned to his former self. That same Neku Sakuraba that everyone had known all this time was now in front of Shiki. With a weak smile, he returned her warm embrace with his own, making the girl's cheeks turn a flushed pink "Thank you…Shiki" he whispered into her ear before ultimately falling unconscious.

Once again, Beat quickly rushed in and picked the two up from the ground so they wouldn't be in the range of Ryou's flames "Ryou, roast it now!" Beat ordered and the sword wielder lifted his weapon and plunged it into the solid ground, creating an inferno that surrounded the whole sigil and burning it into ashes.

Seeing the burning circle, Hanekoma swayed his eyes around the flame show and let out a relieved sigh "Boy, am I beat. I think I'm gonna take a nap after this…" The seraph said before adjusting his shades again.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There wasn't a way to recover all the damages that Akihabara had sustained; however, there _was_ a way to bring back all the people that were sacrificed during the explosion. Using an entirely different sigil, Hanekoma brought them back using the remains of their 'Soul' from the spirit plane. Luckily, the blast had occurred in two planes, the RG and spirit plane respectively. It was the same process as bringing players from the reaper's game back to life so if the blast originated from the RG, those people would be gone forever.

After that, they decided to bring Neku, who was still unconscious, to a nearby hospital and made him stay there until he would regain consciousness.

While he was unconscious, Neku had once again encountered his other self that he'd fought not so long ago. They were both in a white area with nothing around them but white light that flowed across the whole place "So, we meet again, Sakuraba. Boy, you really should learn to control the power i gave you a little better. Another wrong step and we could've ended up biting the dust"

Neku felt a little guilty about that as he stared into the red eyes of his identical twin. He knew that it was his own fault for letting himself get careless and giving that human-like noise a chance to mess him up pretty bad. "Sorry…" Neku mumbled as his eyes looked down at the endless white ground. Seeing the sad expression on his "partner's" face, the other Neku let out a chuckle "Quit your mopping, Sakuraba. At least everything turned out okay in the end, right?"

That compliment rather surprised Neku. He didn't think his other self would ever say anything helpful like that. All this time they've been more like strangers than friends. When he saw the suspicious stare on Neku's eyes, the copycat couldn't help but laugh again "Yeah, I know. It ain't like me, right? Well…people change and so do the noise. I guess, I've grown a little fond of ya', kid"

Finally, the other self turned his back and started to walk away into the distance. Neku still wanted to say something, but he decided that he would save it for another time as he watched his new friend walk off, waving his hand while he did. "Don't go dying on me now, ya hear. You've got great friends who're willin' to do almost anything for you" At that last word, the imitation turned his head and gave Neku a half-view of his face "See ya' around, partner"

After hearing that final statement, Neku's vision started to blur and the white and blinding background was slowly replaced by the image of a room. There was white paint on the walls, a few pieces of furniture, and a TV in front of him. When Neku gained control of his sense of touch, he could feel something soft under him and realized that it was a bed. After rubbing his head for a moment, he looked around some more to see Shiki, Hanekoma, and Kyo although they were all unaware that he was awake. Well, there was at least one _person_ who knew that he was now awake, since he was sitting right on his head…

"Mornin' big bro! Did you sleep well?" Mr. Mew greeted as he neared his face towards his, making Neku yell in surprise and as a reflex action, grab the toy and throw him face first into the big black TV set.

"Neku, you're awake!" Shiki blurted out with a relieved smile as she checked to see if her friend really was ok. When Neku sat up from the white bed, he was immediately interrupted from talking by the stuffed cat who started scratching at his face "That hurt, you jerk, meanie, dumb-dumb!" As another reflex action, Neku once again grabbed the black toy but this time stuffed him inside a pillow.

"So, where's everyone else?" Neku asked, making Kyo point downwards "At the lobby. The nurse scolded us for making too much noise in the room and even gave me a slap to take home…" The sniper said as he rubbed his cheek which was still a bit reddish in color.

"Well" Hanekoma began "You _did_ try flirting with her. Anyway, it's good to see that you're ok, boss. You may not be in an uncontrolled state anymore, but you still have noise inside you which could even lead to another event like that…"

Neku clenched his fist with a feeling of guilt present in his head. Once again, he remembered that everything was more or less his fault and that none of that would've happened if he hadn't been so careless. "Don't let it get to you, boss. You should learn from mistakes; not kill yourself over them. Anyway, there _is_ a way to prevent that from happening again. You up to it?" At hearing that, Neku immediately turned his head towards Hanekoma and nodded. He never wanted anything like that to happen again and would do anything to prevent it.

"If you strengthen your 'Soul', you'll be able to control your power and even make yourself stronger at the same time. I can teach you something called 'Soul Unison' that'll be a big plus. I can also have Sho teach you how to mend your noise abilities. It'll be tough but if you pull through, I can 90% promise you that nothing like this'll ever happen again"

With determined eyes, Neku clenched the clean bed sheet and grinned. "Count me in. If it'll help me that much, there's absolutely no way I can turn that down, can I" He replied, making Hanekoma smile and stand up from his seat. "Then, we'll start as soon as your wounds heal. For now, you should get some rest" He concluded before walking out of the room with Kyo following behind. Shiki bid farewell to Neku with a small smile then proceeded for the door as well. But before she could exit the room, Neku muttered something that made the girl stop. "Thanks, Shiki. I really mean it"

Seeing the appreciative look on the 16-year old's face, Shiki looked at him with a "No problem" kind of expression before suddenly seeing something that caught her attention "Hey Neku, your shirt's got some rips on it" She said which made the blue-clad boy scan his shirt from top to bottom. There were a few small rips here and there but it wasn't anything so serious. "Yeah, I must've gotten them from the figh-" Neku felt like a cat had just ripped out his tongue when his eyes saw the small sewing needle on Shiki's right hand. "Now, hold still so I can get that fixed right up!"

That panicked feeling had now come back to Neku as he backed up to realize that there was nowhere to run. He could see that fire in Shiki's eyes as he continued to try and convince her to stop. Unfortunately, this was a battle where Neku was always bound to lose…

"H-Hey…stop, don't come any closer. N-No, get back! Get back damnit! GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And Neku's suffering ends here…for now. If this was an anime or something like that, then I could probably say that this ends season 1 of the fic. The next chapter is called 'Training' which is obviously because Neku starts training his abilities. Actually, it's not really just Neku that's gonna train but his fellow players as well. It's just that Neku gets even more work since he has to control the noise inside him.

Once again, I'd like to thank Revanunknown (Konanakt) for the really detailed advice. I really appreciate you taking time off (30 mins like you said) to make that long review. I'm grateful and I hope you can correct me more on later chapters.

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Shiki: Howdy, all you viewers and welcome to the second episode of "The Show Ends With You!" I'm Shiki Misaki and beside is my co-host, Neku Sakuraba!

Neku: Hello! I'm Neku Sakuraba! Welcome to another edition of out show! *Waves hands continuously*

Shiki: _Uhh…Neku, did you hit your head on something coz' you're acting like a total idiot…_

Neku: _You're the one who told me to put more enthusiasm in it…_

Shiki: _But I didn't mean you should overdo it! _A-Anyway, we had a little problem on our last show so we promise to make this one more normal.

Neku: Let's bring out our guest for tonight. He's a former reaper named Koki Kariya! A round of applause ladies and gentlemen.

Shiki: _Well…at least he's not acting all hyper anymore…_

Kariya: Thanks for having me on the show. *eats a lollipop*

Shiki: Well, Mr. Kariya, How was it like, working in the reaper's game?

Kariya: It was relaxing at times, but also a drag at some points

Neku: A drag, huh? Like when?

Kariya: When I had to kick yours and blonde boy's butts, but ended up getting my own butt kicked.

Neku: Oh…uhh, sorry about that…

Kariya: It's cool *stares at Shiki* you know, when Uzuki forced me to fight again, Neku kinda enjoyed fighting with my partner for some reason *Grin*

Shiki: Oh he did huh? *Death stare at Neku* Were you checking her out or something?

Neku: N-No I didn't do anything like that, I swear! Beat was the one fighting her, not me!"

Kariya: Miss Shiki, would I lie to you? *Innocent face*

Neku: What the hell do you think you're getting at you stuck up Willy Wonka poser?!

Kariya: Okay, okay, I lied. Sorry but it seemed like so much fun.

Shiki: *Blush* S-Sorry about that folks…anyway, I hear you really like collecting lollipops. Is that true?

Kariya: Sure is. I've got lollipops of all kinds of flavours but my fav one is still bean paste.

Neku: _Is that even a flavor?_

Shiki: so other than bean paste, what other flavors do you really enjoy?

Kariya: Well there's apple, orange, gr- *gets hit on the head with a frying pan*

Uzuki: What the hell did you say?! How dare you lie about that, you little demon!!"

Kariya: *Sweat drop* C-Come on, it was just a joke Uzuki.

Uzuki: You don't just make jokes like that on national television!! *takes out a gun*

Shiki: W-Well that's all the time we have today folks! Tune in again next time! _C-cut the camera, quick!_

*Video is gone but gun shots can be heard along with screams*

.


	13. Training

Ok so in this chapter, a new kind of fusion skill appears. It's somewhat like the fusion pin from the reaper's game but with a few differences. Also, everytime you see a sentence or phrase with Big, **Bold** letters from here on out, that means that there's a partner communication going on. You'll see what I mean later on in this chapter.

Btw, I've noticed that I maybe used Hanekoma's 'boss' line too much. Thanks to Konankt for the reminder. And just so you don't get confused, VP or valued possessions are the things that give Neku and the rest their unique abilities. Neku's headphones and Mr. Mew are examples of VPs. You'll also be seeing this abbreviation later on.

**_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________**

The World Begins With You

Chapter 13: Training

It's been two days since the battle in Akihabara and everyone seemed to have settled down now. The blast that had occurred in Akihabara was reported to be an earthquake during a news broadcast the other day. All the players knew that it was just some cover-up story because they didn't even know the true cause of that blast. Then again, you couldn't blame them because they were oblivious to everything that Neku and the rest were going through.

It was now Neku's first day from being released from the hospital, but unfortunately for him, he still had to go to school. It was still winter break but much to the students' disappointment, there was a three-day set of SAT tests that everyone had to take. "Tch…this is student abuse…" Neku thought aloud as he moved his pen in a circular motion, shading the answer of his choice. Luckily, he wasn't one to quickly forget past lessons so the test wasn't all that hard.

When he finally finished, he set his pen down and swayed his eyes around the classroom. Looking at his fellow classmates, he noticed a few things, such as Beat who was already panicking due to the limitless number of questions he hadn't even begun to answer yet, Eri who'd probably finished a little earlier than Neku since she was just looking out the window, Shiki who had just finished her test and was now stretching her arms, and finally a couple of students who were just "Shot-gunning" the test, seeing that they were smiling as they shaded at an incredibly fast pace.

"_Lazy-asses" _Neku thought as he watched the students answer without even looking at the questions. After a few more minutes of waiting which entailed looking out the window and listening to music (Which led to a ruler being smacked right on his head), the bell finally rang which meant that it was time for everyone to head on home or wherever their supposed to be at.

"So, how'd you guys do on the test?" Shiki asked as the group walked though the hallway. Neku and Eri shrugged with a smile, telling Shiki that they did pretty well. Beat, on the other hand, drooped his body as low as it could go with a face that looked like his spirit had just left this world. "That bad, huh?" Shiki said and Beat nodded slowly with tears flowing from his dead looking eyes. As the group exited the building, they caught sight of Beat's little sister who was staring curiously at a person in the distance.

"Whatcha lookin' at, Rhyme?" Beat asked before staring in the same direction to see the mysterious, otaku-like, violet haired, (limitless descriptions…) sword wielder, Ryou, once again snooping around with a blank look on his face. Beat swayed his pupils a little to the right to see a few girls in hiding who were feasting their eyes on the mysterious boy. "They've been at it for awhile now" Rhyme muttered, recalling all the other days that she'd seen them spying on the boy.

"Well" Eri said "For one thing, he doesn't even study here and he's not exactly average-looking either. And I guess that ever-lasting day-dreamer look on his face is a major plus too" The teen said before seeing one of the girls finally leave her hiding spot and actually approach the spaced out boy.

"U-Umm…" The girl mumbled, gaining Ryou's attention "M-My name's…Rena…uhh…w-what's yours?" At the moment, her face was blushing furiously and the blue eyed angel hadn't the slightest clue why. "It's Ryou. Nice to meet you" He replied with a silent, yet slightly friendly tone which made the girl's face turn a deeper red than before. "O-Oh, I see…t-that's a nice name…well I…umm…I-I gotta go now, Bye!" And at the speed of light, the girl was gone.

Ryou blinked his eyes in confusion as he wondered if he'd said something wrong. Seeing that their angel friend was all but aware of the situation, Neku and co, sighed as they simeoultaneously thought the same thing "_This guy's...just unbelievable…"_

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After meeting up with Ryou, the group proceeded back home to the new dorm that was just put up in Yokkasune (where Neku and Shiki had their first date). Luckily, the district was only put up two weeks ago and there were a ton of vacant spots there so it wasn't hard for Hanekoma to find the perfect place. The reason that the building was put up in just one day? Well, it had something to do with a particular function of the Seraph's phone which Beat called "Da' copy/paste".

When they entered the dorm, they were immediately greeted by the blue-haired Nana and the spiky haired sniper, Kyo. "Hey there. You guys are just in time for the training. Just wait for Sanae and Sho to finish up" Kyo said, suddenly giving Neku a serious look. This was the time that Neku was anxiously waiting for, even when he was answering his load of tests. He desperately wanted to get stronger; for himself and for everyone he cared about. He couldn't possibly forgive himself if he were to run amok and probably hurt another one of his friends again.

Finally, the shaded angel came through a wide door at the back of the lobby with the grim heaper following behind with a loud yawn "You zetta sons of digits better be thankful to me for preping all this stuff. This damn room kept me up for like forever. The only way I actually friggin' stayed awake was by thinking of good ol' 3.14159265358979323846264338327950-"

"Okay, okay we get it" Neku interrupted "geez, I don't even know HOW that could keep you awake. It'd do the exact opposite for me. Anyway…thanks a lot. I'll make sure this doesn't go to waste" During that last sentence, the boy's expression clearly changed which Sho quickly took note of "Someone's feelin' pretty determined today. Well…do whatcha have to do. I'm gonna go take a nap so call me when you're done with the first part of this inverse matrix of a training montage"

On that sleepy note, Sho let out one last big yawn as he headed up the stairs to get some afternoon shut-eye. Hanekoma on the other hand, didn't look tired at all and seemed to be his everyday self. When Neku thought about clarifying that, he quickly threw that thought in the garbage when his eyes caught sight of a jumbo-sized coffee mug that the Seraph was holding "_I knew coffee could keep you awake, but for THAT long?!"_

Hanekoma took one last sip from the brown liquid before leading the group to the room that he and the genius had prepared. Once inside, everyone looked around to see an extremely wide room that was filled with obstacles ranging from large floating balls, to unorthodox styles of bridges.

Seeing the wide obstacle course in front of them, Neku wondered if they really were going to train or just exercise "Hey, Mr. H. Tell me again how this is supposed to train us?" He said with a confused look on his face. The middle-aged man let out a laugh, having predicted what their reaction would be ever since he and Sho started building the place. "This place, is gonna test how well you can coordinate with your partner _and_ build up that coordination. There are two ways to obtain 'Soul Unison'. The first, like how Kariya and Uzuki got it, is by having a near-death experience that pushes you and your companion's 'Soul' to the limit. The second is by training your minds in coordination. The first is obviously the fastest but tell me, would u really wanna try that?"

The first reason managed to catch Shiki's interest, especially because there was actually a pair that managed to obtain 'Soul Unison' because of it. "Kariya and Uzuki had a near-death experience? When did that happen?" The brunette asked, making Hanekoma frown and rub the back of his neck "That's…not important right now. Anyway, for this obstacle course to work, we need to kick things up a notch. You see, this was specifically designed for you to communicate with your partner and without any of that, you're bound to mess up. The added rule for this test is: You can't talk to your partner at anytime during the course. If you do, you have to start over"

Hearing that impossible and mind-piercing request, Beat dropped his jaw just as fast as he drops his attention span. "Whaauuaaa?! You gotta be playin' us, Mr. H. Ain't no way in hell we'd get through with no comminicitation!' The skateboarder said in surprise, once again making Sanae laugh at how shocked his reaction was. "First of all Beat, it's **communication** and not **comminicitation. **Secondly, there _is_ a way to get through this. If you sync up enough with your partner's 'Soul', you'll be able to read each other's thoughts for a limited time. During that time, get through whatever obstacle before that time runs out"

* * *

Before letting them choose their partners, Hanekoma told them that for some reason, having the opposite gender as your partner was usually two times more efficient than having a partner of the same gender. Another efficient way was if the two partners had a special bond like being siblings or family members. Hanekoma theorized that maybe it had something to do with how well two 'Souls' can connect, but it was just a mere theory and nothing else.

The pairs turned out to be Beat and Rhyme, Ryou and Eri, and finally, Neku and Shiki. There were a few times when Ryou had to pair up with Eri in some situations and even more times when Neku partnered with Shiki. The reaper's game was a prime example of how well they fought together. The fact that they actually fought noise with a light puck being their only link would also prove to be a slight plus.

Each pair was to try and finish one of the three different courses throughout the large room. Hanekoma decided to observe Beat and Rhyme first because he had a hunch that they'd be the first to finish their course. The pair that he expected to finish last, even though they had the most experience, was Neku and Shiki; basically because of the noise that continued to lurk in Neku's body.

In front of the two siblings were two narrow tunnels that reached to about half of the large room. These two tunnels were absolutely sound proof so the pair wasn't able to communicate with each other. Inside, each tunnel had buttons to press that would further open the narrow area until they would ultimately reach the end point. A few steps inside, Beat bumped into a solid cement wall that prevented him from moving onward. On the wall were two buttons with drawn symbols on them. One had a moon, while the other, a sun. On Rhyme's side, the same buttons were on the wall as well.

"I wonder what goes down when I push…this one" Beat slammed his finger on the sun-labelled button and immediately, the image of a yellow sun appeared on the sturdy wall. Rhyme decided to push the button with a moon on it and likewise, the image of the blue heavenly being appeared on her wall. A second later, the images vanished, leaving both siblings waiting for something else to happen, but nothing did. Beat continued to press the buttons but Rhyme, being the more analytical one, decided to think about it a bit.

"_Hmm…I wonder how this works. I'm sure these buttons are used to open the doors but…I just can't figure it out…" _She thought before deciding to press the button with the engraved sun. Just as she expected, the image of a sun appeared on the wall, but she still couldn't seem to find the answer she was looking for. Neither of the two knew that the same buttons actually existed on each other's wall.

As everyone continued to ponder on how they'd be able to solve their problems, Hanekoma decided to send a helpful tip to each of their phones.

"_First of all, you gotta make another 'pact' with your partner. It's different this time around though. Concentrate on __your VPs. Once you've done that, focus your thoughts on your partner and your partner alone" _After reading the message, Beat and Rhyme decided to give it a shot. It actually made sense because the valued possession (more commonly known as a VP), acted as a bridge to other planes as well as another person's 'Soul'. The next thing needed was to actually gain access to the other person's 'Soul' via an invisible gate. Noise usually gain access by breaking that gate (Just like how they steal other 'Soul'), but there was a way for the person to actually open up his/her soul to another.

The two blonde siblings did as they were told in the hopes that their partner did the same. As soon as they concentrated on their VPs, they immediately closed their eyes and focused all their thoughts on one another. The only image in their heads right now were each other and nothing else, just like how Hanekoma had instructed them. Just as they had hoped, the pair could now feel a strange feeling inside them. It was like there was a faint connection in their minds which made them focus even more. Beat even resorted to saying Rhyme's name over and over again just to keep him focused which was actually a pretty smart move on his part.

Finally, Beat felt his feet take off from the ground and found himself floating in an endless dark space. After a short while, his treasured little sister appeared right in front of him and seemed just as confused as he was "Beat, is that you?" She asked after rubbing her eyes just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Sure enough, the person in front of her was definitely real. Beat took a few steps forward until he was right in front of his kid sister "It's me aight. I guess we nailed it, yo" He said before reaching his hand out to her with a warm smile present on his face "Let's get goin'…Rhyme"

With a genuine smile of her own, Rhyme took her older brother's hand and gripped it genly. "Yeah…let's" Having said that, a very familiar shining light enveloped the two and brightened their surroundings in a light blue color. It was definitely that same light whenever a pact was made in the reaper's game.

When the light vanished, Beat and Rhyme found themselves once again inside their respective tunnels in the same part where they'd left off. Before pressing a button, Beat decided to experiment with his new pact so he again, focused all his thoughts on Rhyme and she did the same to her brother.

"**Rhyme…yo…testing, one two three testing. Miiiiiiiike teeeest" **The elder of the siblings called out through his thoughts, making the younger respond to confirm the formed 'connection' "**We have lift off. Over and out…hee hee" **She happily replied which made Beat laugh as well.

Now that they could communicate through their minds, it was time to actually solve the problem in front of them. Since there were only two buttons, they thought that maybe the same button has to be pressed "**Okay, let's go fo' sun this time, yo" **Beat mentally transfered to Rhyme. Once both of them hit the same button, the impeding wall suddenly crumbled down and revealed a path that continued a little further on. After a momentary celebration, the Bito siblings continued down the path for a few seconds until they finally reached another wall, this time with 5 buttons laid out on the piece of marble.

Beat looked to his right to see a lever that was nailed on the side of the wall. Without even a second of suspicion, he quickly pulled the lever as fast as a professional slot machine player in a casino. Soon after, the buttons that were spread out on the wall began to light up randomly one after another. From right to left, there was a red, orange, yellow, blue, and green button. Due to the buttons lighting up from nowhere, Beat was caught off-guard and he soon lost track of the blinking lights.

"**Hey Rhyme, whaddya think a' this one. There's a lever and five blinking buttons right here" **The part about the lever surprised Rhyme because none of the sort existed on her side. The only things present were the five colored buttons. "**Beat, what does the lever do?"**

"**Well, once I give it a pull, these colored buttons start flashin' like fireworks"** That statement once again confused the blonde girl. When Beat had pulled the lever, nothing so much as blinked on Rhyme's side, but before the 13-year old could even think of an idea, one had already surprisingly come up in Beat's head **"Oh, I got it! Since I'ma here with the lever, maybe I gotta mezmorize which buttons start flashin' first" **That actually didn't sound like a bad idea, much to his sister's surprise although he'd once again pronounced something wrong which was usually expected of him.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, Neku and Shiki were having some trouble on their part. They were already in the black space like where Beat and Rhyme had made their pact, but there was _someone_ stopping the two from confirming the pact. It was a certain red-eyed Neku noise that sat on the black ground with a bored look on his face. The real Neku on the other hand, was about to explode in irritation "What the hell will it take for you to accept the friggin' pact!" the spiky haired teen loudly complained. Unfortunately, Neku had a human half _and_ a seriously stubborn noise half that both controlled the overall 'Soul'. If either Neku or noise Neku would disapprove, then the pact would be denied. Neku obviously agreed to form a pact, but the other one wasn't as giving…

"Please…" Shiki began "We really need you to accept the pact. We really seriously absolutely need it" Even though both her words and her face expression were sincere and genuine, noise Neku still wasn't about to give in. Neku actually found her begging face a little cute, but his other half just found it irritating.

"If this kid's gonna be your partner, then forget it. I ain't making a pact with some puny little girl that can't even hold her own in a fight. But…if you're really THAT serious, then maybe you'll do this one little request" He said with a suspicious grin on his face.

"If it'll make you agree to form a pact, then I'll do it. Just tell me what to do" Shiki asked, making a childish smile appear on the noise's face as he pointed to his human half "Give him a kiss then" At hearing that odd request, both teens' faces immediately turned as red as a tomato which was even amplified when they shot looks at each other for a short moment. "Umm…well i-uh…" Shiki mumbled as her pupils danced around her eyes. Neku, who was also affected the same way, was also speechless.

"I'm just kidding. Man, you shoulda seen the looks on your faces. That was priceless!" noise Neku blurted out before letting out a loud laugh, turning their former embarrassment into new-born anger "THAT"S NOT FUNNY, YOU JERK!" The brunette yelled before giving the noise a full-powered punch that sent him flying from his former location, making Neku's eyes widen in shock at seeing how strong a punch she can actually throw. "Remind me…not to ever piss you off…"

After getting up and shaking his head to recover his blurry vision, the noise half grinned as he placed his hand on the deep red mark on his face that resembled Neku and Shiki's faces not too long ago. "Wow, you sure know how to inflict pain. I'll tell you what, as a 'sorry' for making that joke, I'll allow the pact to happen" For some reason, it looked like he really _was_ gonna allow the pact from the very start, but decided to play around a bit.

"But" The noise began, a playful grin once again on his face "You DO know that a pact's confirmed once you hold your partner's hand, right? Well then, go on" In his mind, Neku cursed himself for having such an annoying other half. He already knew that he had to hold Shiki's hand but having someone blab that out from nowhere just made the situation even more awkward "Well…give me your hand…" Neku said as he positioned his eyes in another direction.

With a quick nod, Shiki softly held the boy's hand, causing him to look at her for a moment until that same blue light once again surrounded them and finally confirmed their pact.

Just like what had happened with Beat and Rhyme, Neku and Shiki soon found themselves back in their own separate courses. Currently, they were in separate mazes with directions occasionally planted on a wall. Those directions were meant for the partner and not exactly for the person reading the instructions. Using their new telekinetic communication, the two transferred the directions to each other until they came across longer and more difficult directions.

The problem about the new technique was that it only lasted a short while which wasn't enough for them to instruct their partner through the much longer parts of the mazes. Neku and Shiki decided that it was best to put more concentration in it so the connection would hopefully become stronger. It probably needed more training and experience to lengthen the connection, so they thought.

Through the minutes, everyone felt their connections grow stronger as they continued to train their minds by repeatedly focusing on their tasks. Little by little, they were able to solve the longer problems and when they came across a more difficult one, they focused even more than before until they finished that part as well. Finally, after a half-hour of mental training, they eventually bumped into each other at the end of the long and hassling maze, making them sigh in relief as they looked back at the path where they had just been.

"We're…finally…done" Shiki tiredly mumbled as she tried to catch her breath. Beside her, the blue eyed boy was doing the same "Worst…30 minutes…of my life" Even if there wasn't much physical movement, just the mental strain on their heads was enough to wipe them out.

Just as Hanekoma had expected, Neku and Shiki were the last ones to finish. Beat and Rhyme were the first ones, followed by Ryou and Eri. Things went pretty well on this pair's end with only minor difficulties. They actually would've finished first if it wasn't for Eri who had sprained her ankle. Because of that, things went slower than originally planned and Ryou had to give her a piggy-bank ride back to where Hanekoma was.

When everyone was finally gathered, Sanae proceeded with the tutorial "Ok guys, now that we've pumped up our minds a bit, it's time for the fun part of this lesson. Hey Einstein, it's your turn" He said to a sleepy looking math wiz. It seemed that he never did get enough sleep which made him extra cranky as well.

"Alright already…friggin' slave driver. Okay you stupid hectopascals, it's time to test what you've just learned. Firstly…" Sho took a spray can from his pocket and quickly drew a noise sigil with it. Soon after, he placed one hand on it and created a few black taboo noise "I'm gonna put you up against these guys as training dummies. Just like coffee man said awhile ago, you're gonna 'craft' your very own kind of 'soul fusion'. To do that, ya gotta focus on your partner and try to fully connect. Once you get that down, picture the attack on your mind and make sure your partner's doin' the same"

On that note, Sho ordered his pets to attack. He also ordered the fellow players to not use their pins and to only concentrate on creating a 'soul unison'. The only problem was that it was hard to concentrate while continuously stepping away from incoming attacks, but if they couldn't do that then they wouldn't last in an 'actual' situation. "**Hey Shiki, can you hear me?"** Neku sent over to his partner who took a quick look at him before leaping away from a black frog.

"**Yeah, loud and clear. So, ****now we just need to picture an attack right? What do you think?" **Before giving that some thought, Neku quickly pulled his partner away from a leaping frog and used his elbow to smash it to the ground. Unfortunately, physical attacks like that were more or less like garbage against noise. **"Damn, we need to do something quick or things won't turn out nicely. Okay Shiki, think of something powerful and just keep thinking of it!"**

The cap wearing girl nodded before thinking up the strongest thing that could come up in her mind. As soon as she did, Neku tried to completely sync up with her so his thoughts would be the same. For a 'soul unison' to work, both partners need to be thinking of the exact same attack "_Okay…I can feel it. But wait…_**Shiki what the hell?! I thought you were supposed to think of something powerful, NOT CUTE!" **

"**W-We don't have enough time! Just trust me!" **Shiki thought back, making Neku finally give up and accept the attack. As soon as he did, a blue light once again surrounded the two which signalled that everything was ready. With one deep breath, the two yelled out in emphasis "Soul Unison!"

As a reaction, both Neku's headphones and Shiki's Mr. Mew suddenly disappeared into one single blinding flash which revealed a figure that was the exact opposite of their original attack. A black demon-like being with spikes all over it appeared before them. It had red eyes just like Neku's noise form and had some identical features to Mr. Mew such as the pointy ears and black body. For some reason, it also had a red aura that was similar to when Shiki controlled Mr. Mew during the reaper's game.

With one loud scream, the transformed stuffed animal lifted one hand and summoned a large violet ball which floated just inches away from its hand. After aiming at the helpless frog in front of him, the creature threw the large ball with great force and upon impact, created a vertical explosion which blew an abnormally large hole through the dorm's roof and revealed the orange sunset sky.

"Holy zetta shit…" Sho mumbled with a feeling of fear as he stared at the newly-made damage on the building's top. He actually wasn't the only one that was freaked. Everyone, including the usually calm Hanekoma, was staring in awe at the product of Neku and Shiki's fusion. Even those two didn't expect it to look and seem as deadly as it looked right now. "Umm Neku, I…don't think this is what I had in mind…literally"

"Yeah" Neku began "I think I noticed that ever since this thing came out" After looking at its two 'masters' the once known piggy turned back into its former material state. Neku once again had his headphones back on his head while the stuffed animal was back in Shiki's arms, a groggy feeling coming over the black cat. "Heya, big sis. I had a really weird dream…"

Near-by, the other players had also achieved their own 'Soul unison' basing from the fact that their enemies were no longer in the area. Seeing that everyone had succeeded with flying colors, Hanekoma decided to elaborate on Neku and Shiki's unusual combo "That was really something. You had me on the edge of my seat, you know boss?" In truth, Neku was on the edge of his seat as well even though he was on his feet the whole time.

"So what the hell was that…thing?" The orange haired teen asked. The café owner adjusted his black shades before proceeding with his explanation "That thing was obviously your soul unison. I kinda have a hunch that it turned out that way because of Neku's little friend living deep inside him. I'm sure he's to put the blame on for making it look like that" His point _did_ make sense in a way. The noise Neku was a different person all on his own so there was a good chance that the phenomena at hand was his doing.

Now that Neku's 'soul' training was done, he anxiously waited for the next part of his training which involved compressing his noise power and manipulating it to work far better than it did before. Unfortunately though, his training had to wait because there was another matter that needed urgent attention.

"Neku, we're gonna have to put this on hold for now. You see…I just got new info…on a new entrance to the noise plane. You know what that means, don't you?" Everyone knew exactly what that statement could mean: Another chance to save the composer and get him out before something screwed can happen.

"Actually, there are _two_ new entrances and I suggest that we head over to both of em' as soon as we can. I want all of you to hit the sack early today coz' those gates are gonna bust open pretty soon; Early morning to be exact so I want all of you in the best condition. Right now, one gate exists in Shibuya and the other, in Akihabara. I've already called the players over at Akihabara and told them the same thing that I'm tellin' you now"

That excited feeling had now returned to Neku and everyone else for that matter. Finally, this was the chance to get Joshua back and they weren't gonna let anything stop them because aside from being a high-ranking angel, he was also their friend and they had no plans of losing anyone close to them.

"Okay then" Neku started, turning towards his companions "You heard the man. I dunno bout' you guys, but I really don't intend to let that bastard slip away from us…again. I think I'd rather eat Eri's cooking than let that hap-" His not-so-heroic speech was interrupted by a quick yet painful blow to his orange head.

"If I hear you say A-NY-THING about my cooking ever again, I'll make sure you'll be having your last supper" Even though she was smiling right now, Eri's intentions were all but friendly. "But Eri…your cooking really is a bit b-" Before Shiki could finish what she was planning to say, a lethal death stare zipped her mouth shut like a bank vault.

Thankfully, the dark atmosphere was lifted when another grumbling sound was heard. Mr. Mew was most suspected one, but it turns out that it came from the blonde acrobat this time "Man, I'm starved to death! Think Imma go grab a bite" After hearing that comment, everyone else (except Sho who was now sleeping on a couch) decided to go out for some dinner as well.

Before exiting though, Shiki thought she'd express her new idea with her partner "Neku, Neku. Don't you think it'd be cool if we had a name for the fusion? I mean we could yell it out and make it sound so cool during a fight" It wasn't a bad idea though…if you weren't in the middle of a fight with abnormal creatures that wanted you as their next meal.

"You've gotta be kidding me. Why would we wanna do that?" He replied with a frown, making Shiki try even harder to convince him "Okay…I get it. It was a stupid idea made by some stupid girl. I'm so, so stupid…" She was actually pretty good in making up an act. Her 'sad' eyes managed to hit Neku like an arrow through his chest which finally made him give in to her request.

"A-Alright, fine. How does 'Death Piggy' or 'Porkchop' sound?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Well that about wraps it up for this chapter. I still can't figure out a good title for the next chap but what I _can_ tell you is that there's gonna be a lot of action scenes in this one; one of them actually pitting Neku up against the composer himself *insert scary noise here* I'm sure you're wondering "Why the hell's this guy making Neku fight Joshua?!" Well, there's obviously gonna be a reason. The bad part is that it's gonna be revealed in the next chapter and not now.

Btw, I know I didn't put the other two fusion attacks in this chap but surely, I'll reveal them in the next chapter as well. So to all the readers, I'll see you soon.

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*Neku gets a remote and sits on a couch*

Neku: I wonder what's on

*TV opens*

Sho: Hey you hectopascals! I'm Sho Minamimoto and this is the ever popular "MATH BUSTERS!" Today we'll see if pi really is true or if it's just another m-

*Channel switch*

Beat: Watch me crank dat Bito Boy den superman dat (yooo) Now watch me yoooooo (crank dat Bito Boy) Now watch me yooooo (Crank dat Bito Boy) Now watch me yooo-

*Channel switch*

Shiki: Today we'll be sewing stuffed toys like this one right here. Say hi, Mr. Mew

Mr. Mew: (Huge blue laser comes out of mouth) BLAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHH!!!!!!!!!!!

*Channel switch*

Sho: I'm here right now in an ancient pyramid where Pi was said to have been created. Hey wait, I think I see something *Looks at stone tablet*  
IT'S OVER 3.14159265358979323846264338327950-

*Channel switch*

Kariya: *Holds a lollipop* Chupa Chupas! The pleasure of s-

*TV closes*

Neku: *Gets a phone and starts dialing* Hello? Yeah, I'm calling to change my cable…


	14. determined Rescue

Well, here's the first part of yet another two part chapter. There's a few actions scenes with one that concerns Hanekoma. Also, another fact about the Seraphs is revealed later on in this chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to update with the next part soon. Btw, on the last part of this chapter (The skit), there are a few profiles regarding some of the new characters in this fic such as Kyo and Ryou. If you like, you can read those short description to get a better feel of the characters.

The World Begins With You

Chapter 14: Determined Rescue *part 1*

* * *

Neku had woken up today with a grin on his face. He hadn't been this anxious since his first date, which felt a bit weird in a way. Today was the day that he would finally bring back his seraph friend…without failing this time. Everyone had saved an empty room in the dorm especially for Joshua and they would be seriously aggravated if they didn't come back to the dorm without him. As soon as he took a few steps out of his personal room, the boy smiled as his eyes were fixed on another nearby room with the name 'Joshua' etched on the customized door. For a few seconds, he couldn't help but just stare at it "This time for sure…I'll bring you back. Count on it"

With that thought in mind, Neku continued on to the carpeted staircase and went down to the lobby. There was still at least an hour before the sortie so Neku chose to get a little early morning fresh air. He was more accustomed to having a calm before the storm rather than nervously waiting for the storm to come.

Even opening the front door was enough to calm his senses a bit. The touch of the morning breeze and the sight of a quiet Shibuya always did entertain Neku's mind and body. Months ago, it was only because he didn't like seeing other people, and roaming the streets of a quiet Shibuya did him well. But after experiencing the Reaper's game and all that jazz, he began to have a new and much simpler reason: Now, he just simply liked the breeze.

As he walked through a momentarily quiet Shibuya, his thoughts seemed to linger around his head. Things like how much Joshua had annoyed him in the past, but of which had always turned out to help him out in the end. One thought that made him curse in his mind was the first and almost successful attempt to rescue Joshua from the noise plane. "Joshua, if you diss me again, I swear I'm gonna kick your little ass"

Surprisingly, all of those roaming thoughts had unconsciously led him astray and he soon realized that he was actually right in front of the statue of the loyal dog, Hachiko. It seemed that he was so distracted that he actually became oblivious to where he was going "What the hell…am I doing here?" A confused Neku asked himself as he swayed his eyes around an empty area.

Aside from Neku and the loyal dog made of bronze, there was still one more person in the area, sitting on a nearby bench. Hearing Neku's confused complaint; the person turned her head to the boy with a surprised look on her face "Neku? What're you doing here?" A soft voice spoke out, making Neku turn his head towards the sound to see Shiki along with a bored looking stuffed cat sitting on her head.

"Actually…I've been asking myself the same thing. One minute I'm walking out of the dorm and the next, I'm standing in front of ol' Hachiko. How bout' you? What made you come here?" Neku asked before taking a seat beside the brunette. "Well, I actually come here a lot when I get nervous or just need a place to think. It's just that this place…holds so many memories for me which makes the whole place a ton more comfortable"

In truth, this place also held a lot of memories for Neku as well. Some gave him despair, some gave him anger, some gave him anxiety, and one in particular…gave him hope during the reaper's game. "Hey, Shiki, Could that little promise be part of those memories too?" He guessed, making his friend nod happily in response "Of course! Even though I never did wait since I was still stuck in the game, it was still nice to make a promise with someone who'd been a total jerk to me ever since the game started"

"H-Hey, that's not true…" Neku began "I wasn't always like that during the first week…" Shiki couldn't help but chuckle at the reaction that she gained. But it was true that Neku eventually became better as the week went on, and it was all thanks to her. "Hey, Neku; you never did tell me what happened during the second week. That was when you were partnered up with Joshua right?" Shiki was curious about that because she hardly even knew the composer. The only time she actually saw him was during the final battle with Kitanji.

"Well, I was pissed off a lot that's for sure" Neku replied although Shiki frowned at him, looking for a more acceptable answer. "During the second week, me and Joshua occasionally had a little chat about some things. The funny thing is…we actually agreed on one opinion: That we didn't need friends"

Shiki suddenly felt a feeling of sadness for both Neku and Joshua, but that changed when her eyes caught sight of a newly planted smile on Neku's face "But…I didn't think like that for long. There were just too many things that forced me to change my mind" He said, narrowing his eyes at Shiki.

"But, you know…" The girl began "I don't think Joshua meant what he said. He was probably just testing you or something along those lines. I mean, if he wasn't lying, why does he care so much about everyone?" She had a really good point. Joshua showed that by changing his mind about Shibuya's fate, sparing it instead of destroying it like he'd originally promised.

"Yeah…I agree. That guy likes scheming a lot, but overall, he's not that bad" Neku genuinely said as he looked his eyes over at the loyal bronze dog. This was the place where he'd first met Joshua, or any other of his partners for that matter so it really meant a good deal of value to him as well. In the distance, his eyes had suddenly seen a large wall clock and realized that it was almost time for the sortie. "We better get going, Shiki" He suggested and his companion nodded in agreement.

As they walked back to their new home, a thought passed Shiki's mind as she remembered Neku's last sentence "Hey, Neku; I just remembered, this is where you first called me 'stalker' right? Boy, was I glad when you finally called me by my real name. 'Stalker' just really doesn't sound right as a name"

"Heh, but It really did seem like you were stalking me you kn-" Before he could finish his friendly insult, Shiki immediately threw Mr. Mew right at his face, stopping him in his tracks as well as causing a red mark in the shape of the cat's mug to appear.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at the dorm…

In the lobby, Sanae Hanekoma was about to begin the sortie for the next mission "Okay everyone, just like I explained before, we're all heading back to the noise plane" The word 'all' confused Neku a tad bit. "Wait a minute…so you're coming too? I don't recall you joining in last time, Mr. H" He said, making the angel adjust his shades with a smile "Well, seeing that I've already broken the rules once, I don't think I've got anything to lose"

One of the rules particularly for Seraphs was that they couldn't take any physical action during the Angel's game. If they ever did, other Seraphs or angel personnel would have the full authority to treat the felony as a betrayal against the angels. Because Hanekoma broke that rule by physically taking part in the battle of Akihabara (By fighting one of the trio noise and by saving Neku from his berserk state), Jean Javier or other angels may attack him now during the missions.

Now that he'd explained the part concerning himself, Hanekoma proceeded with the sortie "Right now, there are two gates that'll open at different times respectively. The first is right here at Shibuya which we calculated, will open at 8:12 A.M sharp. The other is at Akihabara which will open exactly one hour after the first gate. Obviously the folks over at the Angel Plane saw this coming which was why they sent us to Akihabara a few days ago"

Neku once again frowned at the thought of being the guinea pig in this game. They were being tested, and at the same time, experimented. They refused however, to fail the test and give up all hope on saving the entire RG.

"Okay, now we'll have the operations leader lay out the plan. Kyo, if you would kindly do the honors" He said, signalling over to the blonde rifleman who stopped adjusting the barrel of his weapon and put it around his shoulders. One thing that seemed strange was that both Hanekoma and Kyo looked like very good friends; almost like they go way back or something like that. Everyone had the knowledge that Kyo was a player in Hanekoma's reaper game, but they just seemed to have a deeper connection than that.

"Well now…" The calm yet slightly cocky man began as he brushed his spiky hair back "Since there are two gates, we're obviously splitting into two groups. Team Shibuya will be led by Sanae himself and will consist of everyone here except me and Nana who will be heading over to Akihabara to support those players. That leaves team Shibuya with 13 players and team Akihabara with 9. Now, the objective of Team Shibuya is to be the main unit while Akihabara will play as back-up"

There was one thing bothering the group though. Why couldn't they just enter one gate altogether? It would surely be an easier task for everyone to stick together instead of splitting up…but there were two facts that made Kyo and Hanekoma decide on that matter "There's two reasons why we need to enter both gates. The first is for exploration reasons while the second is to stop the people up in the Angel Plane just in case they decide to enter from there"

With his announcement finished, Kyo switched his view over to his watch to see that it was already 7:44 "Okay people, you've got about 30 minutes until the party starts. Now, before I forget, your gate once again lies over at Pork City. Our gate is over at Akihabara square. If we don't find anything at Akihabara's noise plane, we'll head directly to yours. Well, good luck to ya" Kyo concluded before exiting the wide front door with the blue haired Nana following behind.

After seeing the sniper take his leave, Hanekoma decided that they should get over to Pork City as soon as possible. No one wanted to waste even a second of time because this mission greatly needed everything they had. Right now, there were two big enemies; the noise, who had defected from the Angels and now work solo, and the Angels themselves. Even the other Seraphs would most likely pitch in since Hanekoma had recently broken one particular rule of the game.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At Pork City (8:04 AM)

Neku and his team-mates patiently waited outside the large building known as Pork City. The confirmed members of Team Shibuya were the 4 pairs with 'Soul Unisons', Sho Minamimoto, Sanae Hanekoma and 4 other players (Since Hanekoma wasn't counted as a player). Some of them were chatting while others chose to sit tight and get ready. As everyone continued to wait, Hanekoma thought it best to give out one final warning "Hey guys, just so you know, this mission will most likely be harder than all the past ones combined. Even the Seraphs are taking a bite outta this one" He said which made a thought pass by Neku's mind

"Hey Mr. H, just how many Seraphs are there anyway? And do Seraphs have some special thing that only they got?" He curiously asked. It was actually about time that the Seraphs were elaborated, seeing that they'll be coming in contact with them soon. "Well…counting me and Josh, there are 12 Seraphs total in the Angel Plane ranks. You see, we're also given titles and special trump cards based on them. Josh is called the 'Seraph of Judgement', and me…I'm called the 'Seraph of divine punishment'. I don't really wanna talk about myself so let's leave it at that for now"

Hearing that Joshua was called the 'Seraph of Judgement' did sound right since he was the one that brought big-time judgement upon Shibuya. Hanekoma's title, however, didn't make a connection whatsoever. No one could even begin to understand why he was given that title in the first place, but seeing that he didn't seem to like the topic very much, Neku decided to leave that question a mystery…for now at least.

A few minutes later, everyone's VPs started glowing, making the players turn around to the entrance of Pork City to see that same dark floating hole that they saw a few weeks ago. "Awright peeps! It's time to throw down, yo!" The energetic Beat shouted before running off into the black hole, skateboard in hand.

One by one, everyone entered the dark space as well until no player was left in the RG except for Kyo's team over at Akihabara. Once the background became visible to his eyes, Neku once again frowned at the lifeless noise plane that spread out before him "This place…never stops reminding me of an old movie"

Beside him, Hanekoma flipped up his phone and scanned the area using a noise tracker. Just as he'd expected, wild noise were hiding about in the area "We've got company" He said, but everyone already sensed them as well. All at once, multiple noise began creeping out of dark corners and spaces like wild bats out for blood. Ryou quickly tried to pull his dagger out of its sheath but was stopped by Hanekoma who put his hand on the dagger's thin hilt "You don't need to waste your energy on these guys. Let me take care of em' alright?"

As Hanekoma stepped forward, Neku wondered if he could handle them by himself, but pretty much 99 percent told him "He'll wipe the floor with them" since he was a Seraph after all and the noise in front of him weren't as numerous as last time. Probably whoever was pulling the strings was trying to save on noise before the big finale.

With a grin on his face, the angel adjusted his shades before summoning to his hand, a white scythe that seemed to emanate a similarly white and bright light. "Well, here we go!" The middle aged man said before dashing off towards the group of noise. Seeing that there was only one opponent in front of them, the enemies poured in like a flood. "Heh, that's not very nice. Ganging up on an 'Old man'!" he sarcastically remarked before side-stepping a wolf noise that leaped in front of him. More wolf noises surrounded him and leaped towards the Seraph who quickly countered with a perfect 360 slice, taking out the incoming noise.

Behind him, a bear-type noise chanced a swing but was intercepted with the blunt end of the scythe, leaving the bear gasping for air. Hanekoma left the pained noise for a moment to duck an incoming raven that swooped from above and sliced it in half before it could fly back into the sky. Quickly thinking, he

switched his focus back to the bear and gave it a strong swipe before it could even catch its breath.

"Wow…he's really good" Rhyme muttered as she continued to watch the angel's graceful moves. Neku, Sho and Ryou on the other hand, were more or less analyzing Hanekoma's moves instead of staring in amazement as the rest of the group were doing. "He's always waiting for the noise to attack first" Neku said before Ryou silently added "…Then dodges any incoming attack then checks their next move…"

"And finally…" Sho began, an analytical expression on his face "positions a counter then adds em' to the heap" It seemed that they had just about hit the target with that analysis. Based on what they were seeing, they now knew that Hanekoma was the type who checks his opponents first before engaging with an attack of his own.

Seeing that the noise were now trimming down, Hanekoma leaped a few feet back and started charging up his scythe, making it glow even brighter than before. "Well…see ya" He concluded before smashing his scythe to the ground at full impact, creating a huge white cross that appeared under the noise. The hostiles tried in vain to move out of range, but the cross had seemed to glue them down tightly to the ground. "White Abyss!"

And at the snap of a finger, all the remaining noise vanished into yellow sparkles that slowly faded away into the pitch-black sky. The yellow sparkles seemed like stars in the dark atmosphere which finally managed to amaze Neku and the two other boys "…I've never seen…an angel of that much skill…" Ryou mumbled to himself as Sho crossed his arms with a grin "That was pretty something. I didn't think the old man had it in him" But in truth, Hanekoma didn't really look old at all. He looked more like he was in his early 30's.

Noticing that all the enemies had now either retreated or have been annihilated, the man with shades made his weapon vanish into thin air and turned back towards the group "We should get going now. I'm sensing Josh over at Udagawa...and he's not alone. I'm sensing some other signals there too and they don't seem to be friends at all" He urgently, yet calmly alerted. Another thing that surprised the group was how Hanekoma's range of sensing extended throughout the whole Shibuya.

Meanwhile in Udagawa, a suspicious tower stood at the very end of the area. This glass plated tower had never existed in the RG and was a structure that existed all on its own in the colorless noise plane. In a certain floor of the mysterious tower, was a room made entirely of glass and sort of resembled the conductor's room in the reaper's game. Two figures existed in that room; One was quietly sitting on a glass chair while the other, was chained up to a wall and looked all beaten up judging from his ripped clothing.

"So..." A low and dark voice began "Are you ready to give up and become one of us?" it said as it looked over its shoulder to see that his prisoner had a small smirk present on his tired looking face "M-hmhm...sorry but I'm told that I'm very stubborn from a LOT of people. If you think that this is enough to hold me down, you've got another thing coming" A much higher toned voice spoke out as he continued to grin with confidence despite his beat up state.

Finally, the man on the chair stood up from his seat and grinned as well towards his captive "Then i guess...we're just gonna have to kick things up a notch. I didn't wanna do this, but you don't give me much of a choice…composer" The man said before holding up a strange black orb in his hand.

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As team Shibuya reached a black and white Shibu-Q Heads, which was the closest area to Udagawa, Everyone suddenly felt a strong presence that stopped them in their tracks. "Hey" Shiki began "I think someone else is here…" And it appeared she was correct. Up on the rooftop of Shibu-Q sat the 'Gentleman' Seraph known as Jean Javier. There was also another person that they had never seen before. This woman looked the same age as Neku and had smooth pink hair with blue crystal clear eyes. She wore an elegant white dress that seemed to compliment the Seraph's white suit.

With a smile on his scruffy face, Hanekoma waved at the two "Hey there! Long time no see, Jean…and Maria's here too. Well that's a surprise. I didn't think the youngest Seraph would take part in this" As soon as Jean Javier stood up, he took a jump from the tall building and flapped his large white wings before hitting the ground, taking away the threatening impact that any normal human would have.

Behind him, the female Seraph known as Maria did the same "Hello again, Seraph Hanekoma…" She shyly said which made him smile "You're just as polite as ever…even to your enemies. Sometimes I wonder how you even got to be a Seraph" He said before turning towards Neku and the other players who were already in an alerted stance. "You guys go on. I'll take care of things here. They won't be able to summon any soulless if I'm here to block em"

"But Mr.H" Shiki started, a concerned look on her face "Are you sure you'll be okay? Aren't these guys after you?" It was true that Hanekoma was a main target, but there was also one more person they needed aside from the black haired Seraph "Don't you remember? These guys are looking for Josh too. If I don't stop em' here, then say good-bye to your chances of getting Joshua back. Now…get going. He's waiting for you" At that final sentence, that bright white scythe appeared in his grasp once again.

This time, Neku felt like 50 percent was telling him that Hanekoma wouldn't be able to handle things so well this time around. Because now, his opponents were about the same in strength, seeing that they were all Seraphs. But the thing that worried him most was that it was 2 against 1 which wasn't fair at all.

"I said get moving!" Hanekoma finally yelled as he continued to watch his enemies. This time, his words finally got to the group. They had never seen him this serious before. He was always that calm and relaxed café owner that everyone remembered, but this time, he looked like a totally different person.

"Alright…but" Neku worriedly mumbled "You better not die on us, you hear me?" At hearing those words, Hanekoma's worry finally vanished and he gave his team one last smile before hearing them wish him good luck and finally head off towards Udagawa.

"Well…I think it's about time we got started…" Sanae said as he slowly removed his black shades and put them in his pocket. "But of course. Hmm…the 'seraph of divine punishment' against the 'Seraph of illusions', and the 'Seraph of songs'. I can't wait to see what'll happen" And with an anxious grin, Jean flashed a thin rapier blade from thin air and flew right at Hanekoma who had now revealed his angel wings as well. In mid-air, the battle would commence.

The fight began with Jean striking with multiple quick thrusts of which Sanae easily blocked with the blade of his weapon. After defending himself, he quickly used the scythe's range to his advantage by repeatedly swinging at a safe distance from Jean's quick attacks. Two horizontal swings followed by a vertical slice then a diagonal cut, but were unfortunately dodged by the gentleman. "I see you haven't lost your touch, Seraph of divine pu-" Jean cut his sentence short in order to avoid another slice, finally making the blonde Seraph fly a few ways back..

"Haven't I told you before not to ever call me by that name. It sounds really draggy, you know? I mean, doesn't 'divine punishment' sound like it came from a bad movie or something?" Hanekoma cheerfully said before stepping away from a sudden lightning bolt that dropped from the sky "Ohoo, I see Maria's already getting to work"

The young Seraph known as Maria was currently singing a song in an unknown language. The reason that she was called the 'Seraph of songs' is because of her unique ability to control nature with a simple tune from her voice. As she continued to sing, lightning bolts continued to drop from the sky, leaving the middle-aged man to move away from every single one. "Damn, this isn't good. Maria's songs are gonna be a pain in the neck…" But before he could strategize anymore, he sensed Jean coming from behind and shielded himself just in time from a powerful thrust from his enemy's sword.

"Hmhm…not feeling so confident now are we, Sanae?" He said to the scythe wielder who had now noticed a small scratch on his arm which started to bleed. For the first time in a long time, he could feel a sense of nervousness as he gripped his scythe even tighter like a batter who had already missed two pitches.

"This isn't lookin' good at all. At this rate, I'm gonna have to use my trump card. But if I do that…" Hanekoma was already losing hope in his abilities and Jean could clearly see that just by looking into his eyes. One thing that Jean didn't want was for the black haired man to ultimately use his 'trump card'. Just the thought of that spelled big trouble for Jean and Maria. They also had special abilities of their own, but Hanekoma's was just in an entirely different league.

"I'm not about to let you use that! Maria, sing metrymnos, now" Jean ordered to his companion who obediently nodded as she clasped her hands together and started to sing a soft tune. It was a pleasant song not even fit for a scene of battle, but its effects were a different story. For some reason, Jean's body felt much lighter than before, as if the winds were pushing him forward. With a smirk, the devious gentleman once again went on the offensive, thrusting his rapier blade even quicker than before. It wasn't only his sword skills that were faster, but even his movements. He could sway left and right without any trouble at all. At this point, Hanekoma was having difficulty defending against each attack and even had a few scratches already on his arms and legs.

"Damn…I really have no choice. I've gotta use it now!" He finally said before swinging one last time just to give him some space. After floating a few feet back, his whole figure started to glow an abnormally bright light which continued to expand even brighter. "Damnit, he's started! Maria!" Jean called out once again to his partner who started singing that same tune that brought lightning from the sky. Multiple bolts dropped in on the glowing Seraph, but literally vanished into nothing the moment it came into contact.

"It's useless now. Once I start this up, you can only wait for it to finish. Heh…I never thought I'd use this again. Sorry Neku, looks like…I might not be able keep that promise" As he began to shine even brighter, he could only close his eyes and wait for whatever it was to happen. But…

"Sanae, STOP!" A familiar voice called out from the distance, making Hanekoma look over his shoulder to see someone that immediately put a relieved smile on the Seraph's face "Couldn't you have arrived at a better time?" Behind him now stood the rifleman, Kyo, who was also flying with angel wings attached to his back. Now that he finally had a fighting chance, the once panicked angel now stopped what he was currently doing. "Sorry Sanae, how was I supposed to know this would happen?"

A surprised look suddenly came over Jean's face at seeing the person beside Hanekoma "You…but I thought the Seraph of Chance was dead" He said as Kyo took the rifle from his back and aimed it "I guess you're wrong then. And another thing; Don't ever call me the Seraph of Chance you little wuss. I…never leave anything to chance…not anymore. Snipers always make sure they hit their target"

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In Udagawa…

Neku and co. were now in the vicinity of the glass tower, but there was one thing that impeded their progress "Tch…there's no end ta' them, yo!" An irritated Beat complained as he drove his skateboard right into a raven noise and erased it.

Right now, a handful of players were battling against an endless number of noise that swarmed the entire large room. Actually, a few members of each team were already down on the lower floors, holding off the other noise that appeared there. There was just one more floor to go, but there was just so many noise this time that it would be difficult to attempt to head up the stairs.

Finally, Ryou made a decision that might be able to be a solution to the group's problem "…Neku, Shiki…you two move to the last floor. We'll hold them off here"

"B-But" Shiki started "We can't just leave you h-" Neku suddenly grabbed the girl's thin wrist, making her look at her partner "We gotta move. We don't know how long the gate will stay open and we can't afford to waste anymore time" He said, trying to convince Shiki. Unfortunately, Neku had a pretty good point. Any moment they waste will only add to the closure of their only way out of the noise plane.

"Don't worry, Shiki. We'll be just fine!" Eri reassured her best friend with a smile. With one last look, Shiki wished them good luck and headed to the staircase along with her partner.

As they ran up the stairs, a feeling of anxiety came over Shiki. In her mind, questions were floating left and right. Things like "Will we be able to get Joshua back?" Or "Are we even gonna get out of here in one piece?" Were the two questions that she asked herself the most. Even though Neku couldn't read her mind right now, he could already sense what she was feeling "Don't worry, we'll get him back. I'll make sure of it" He calmly said before Mr. Mew decided to add to that. "I'll try hard for big sis too!" He said atop Shiki's hat, making the brunette smile.

A few moments later, they arrived at a room which was even grander than the last one. Elegant crystal pillars were scattered across the huge room with a red colored throne at the very end. Apparently, this whole tower still retained all its color which differed greatly from the rest of the surroundings.

Sitting on the majestic looking throne, was a man with black skin that resembled those other three black noise during the battle in Akihabara. Although…there was something different about this one. He actually looked a lot more human with his deep black skin being the only factor that made him look like a demon.

"Hmph…you kids are really getting irritating. I don't know what caused that stupid gate to appear, but I'll make sure you rascals don't come back the other side" He said before snapping his fingers, signalling someone over by his side. To the pair's surprise, the mystery man turned out to be Joshua himself.

"Joshua! What the hell are you doing there?!" The orange haired boy said as he looked into the composers eyes. Just seeing them confused him. His eyes didn't look normal at all. They looked more the eyes of a possessed man.

"He can't hear anything you have to say to him. Right now, he's my own little puppet. Now Joshua, I want you to kill these two runts" Neku didn't like the sound of that at all. If Joshua really was being controlled right now, then that would mean a world of problems for the two. But still, Neither Neku or Shiki could believe that someone like the composer could actually be controlled like that. It just seemed so…impossible.

As strange as sounded, it was true. Suddenly, Joshua's body became brighter until the only thing they could see were his grey eyes. Even his long blonde hair was now completely white.

But that didn't scare Neku at all. He swore to himself that he'd rescue Joshua at any cost; Even if that meant fighting him.

"If I gotta knock you out to get you back. Then bring it!"

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Finally done with this part. I actually think I've gotten a bit better with my writing although this is also the cause of much longer chapters. If you guys are uncomfortable with reading so much in just one chapter. Let me know okay?

Btw, I know I said I would reveal Beat/Rhyme and Ryou/Eri's soul unisons in this chapter, but I'm gonna put that on hold right now since I'm still uncertain on how I'm gonna make them look like, but I promise I'll reveal them in part 2 of this chapter. Now, I'm sure a lot of you didn't expect Kyo to actually be a Seraph right? Well, I'll be expanding on each of their 'titles' also on the next chapter. The only thing I'll tell you right now is that Kyo's past has something to do with the title. As for Hanekoma, it's something like that. Well, See you

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Shiki: Hey all you viewers and welcome to another edition of "The Show ends With You" I'm Shiki Misaki and this is my broadcast partner-

Neku: Neku Sakuraba. Hey there.

Shiki: Well it's about time you got your introduction right

Neku: …don't push it…

Shiki: Well folks, tonight we'll be viewing some profiles on a few of the newcomers on "The World Begins With You". If you'll kindly look at the monitor behind us

*Huge screen appears*

Neku: The hell?! I didn't know we had something like that

Shiki: Coz you never pay attention. Well anyway, let's roll the profiles.

File Name: Kyo Senkaku  
Seraph number 8 of the 12 Seraphs of the Angel Plane. He is the second youngest Seraph with the title of "The seraph of chance". His weapon of choice is a customized sniper rifle which amazingly can turn into detachable twin handguns for close quarters. He's slightly cocky and usually puts a happy-go-lucky face on. During battle though, his expression turns serious and can analyze even the toughest situations. The reason to his title is still unknown but he greatly despises it saying that he no longer leaves anything to chance. It probably has something to do with his past experiences. He also greatly interested in girls and can sometimes be seen flirting with them.

Shiki: Well, all you ladies out there. Watch out for this guy coz' when he sets his sights on you, he's sure not to miss!

Neku: Unless those girls give him a black-eye and take away his vision…

File Name: Maria Terrace  
This pink haired youngster is number 5 of the 12 Seraphs. She is the youngest Seraph with the title of "The Seraph of Songs". As the name hints, her ability is to control the forces of nature with a simple song. She has a humble and obedient attitude which sometimes makes her hesitate to carry out her orders as a Seraph.

Neku: *Blushes at Maria's picture on the monitor*

Shiki: *Knocks Neku right on the head*

Neku: Argh! I didn't even say anything

Shiki: Just zip it and look at the monitor

File Name: Nana Kesaki  
A blue haired 15 year old that goes to the same school as Neku and his friends. She decided to become a player in the angel's game because of witnessing a life-threatening experience with noise. She has an older brother that currently dreams of becoming a big star baseball player and has headed to the U.S. to train there. Nana is usually seen with a cheerful expression on her face and is extremely gullible, even believing that Santa existed until she finally stopped at 13 years of age. Her zodiac pin of choice is the zodiac of 'thunderbolt' which allows her to manipulate electric currents. Her VP is a baseball medal given to her by her brother.

Neku: Extremely gullible huh?

Shiki: Well, let's take a look at the last one

File Name: Ryou (Last name unknown)  
An angel of 'Archangel' rank which is the second lowest rank in the angel plane. Wielder of the 'Pyro blade' which is originally a dagger infused with a zodiac of pyrokenisis pin. Despite his lowly rank, his skills with a sword are astounding and the flames on his blade resemble his fury in battle. He has a silent attitude and is completely ignorant and unaware of many things such as girls who try to ask him out. A ton of mysteries surround this violet haired angel which includes the suspicious chain wrapped around his right arm. He is also an avid otaku and spends his time reading either books of knowledge or manga.

Neku: Well that's a unique profile. An otaku, huh? This cast is getting a pretty big variety

Shiki: Hmm…unfortunately we'll have to end it here. We'll be showing you more profiles on the next show, so until next time all you viewers, bye!


	15. determined Rescue Part two

The World Begins With You

Chapter 15: Determined Rescue *Part 2*

Neku looked into the composer's purple eyes and Joshua did the same. Neku could clearly tell just by looking at those small purple orbs to see that Joshua wasn't himself at all. But his current form…greatly surprised both Neku and Shiki. They'd never seen him like that before. It felt so intimidating, but still

"If I gotta drag you back, then so be it!" Neku exclaimed as his left noise arm appeared once again. "No hard feelings Joshua, but this is something I've wanted to do for a long time!" After a moment of aiming his palm at the white angel, bursts of huge yellow shots fired like a machine-gun, creating a strong gust that lasted for a few moments. When the dust had finally cleared. Shiki's eyes widened in surprise at what she saw "I-it didn't even scratch him, Neku!"

She was right. The composer seemed unscathed and unharmed by the attack. But that was reasonable because Neku didn't put everything he had into that assault. Still, it was quite surprising that he wasn't even the slightest bit hurt. "Well if that didn't hurt, then suck on this!" In a flash, Neku's right arm transformed into yet another noise arm. It was probably the work of the 'Soul Unison' training which strengthened his soul quite a bit, giving him more control over his power.

With a serious expression on his face, Neku opened fire with two charged blasts from both arms which managed to even blast a hole through the glass wall, revealing the black and white background of the noise plane. But unfortunately, even that didn't work. "Tch…he's even more stubborn than usual"

While Neku was blasting away, Shiki managed to catch sight of something that plagued her interest. There was a small black crystal that stuck out of the back of Joshua's neck. In her opinion, that tiny crystal spelled 'Suspicious' in every angle. "Hey Neku, take a look at that little black stone. You think those're the culprits?" Neku looked in the direction that his friend pointed at to see the exact thing that she saw.

"Could be. But there's one thing that's still keeping me up on my feet. That guy over there's still not giving a damn about anything that's happening right now" Shiki looked over to the black human figure sitting quietly on his throne to see that he really wasn't taking any action whatsoever. But for now, they needed to concentrate on the seraph who was now right in front of them "Shiki, look out!" Neku alerted before quickly pushing her away, leaving him to block a full powered punch that pushed him back a bit. "Err…what was up with that punch? If I was using my normal arms, they'd have a huge bruise right about now…"

Even before he could start to relax, Neku had to put his arms up once again to defend against a bright blue beam that came flying at him. "It was great having that attack on my side during the reaper's game…but fighting against it is HELL" He thought aloud before surrounding his arms with a bright yellow energy and smashing them to the ground, creating a huge yellow wave that crawled towards Joshua. Suddenly, the composer turned his whole white arm into a large blade which he used to block Neku's attack.

Behind him, Shiki quickly approached the composer and suddenly struck with a rapid flurry of kicks which surprisingly, gave her enemy a hard time to defend against. After a few successful strikes, the brunette landed one more powerful somersault which gave Neku enough time to blast Joshua at point blank range, knocking him flat on his back.

During that whole combo though, Neku wondered just how on earth his stuffed toy loving friend could display that much quickness a short while ago. "Uhh…Shiki, since when…did you get so threatening?" He said with a confused face, making Shiki chuckle with a slight blush on her face "Surprised? It's another thing that Mr. Mew can do. When I say 'flash', it's like he becomes a part of me. My whole body just feels like a feather all of a sudden and I find myself flipping like crazy. It feels really great!"

Shiki hadn't realized it, but there was actually a sort of red line around her body. Neku clearly remembered that red line on the once inanimate Mr. Mew who had recently gotten a mind of its own. "I really don't get this girl. Her pin ability's just…too random" Neku thought to himself as the puppet-like Joshua got back up on his feet.

Neku tried to calmly analyze the current situation. For now, Neku and Shiki had a number advantage so he decided to put that to good use "Hey Shiki, we gotta work fast if we're gonna break that little black crystal. I'll try to distract him long enough for you to get in close and shatter them" The teen instructed and his partner agreed with a quick nod.

With a now formed plan in their heads, the pair dashed off in opposite directions to attack from both sides. As he ran towards Joshua, Neku once again shot huge yellow blasts heading towards the brainwashed boy from the left. Since Shiki could only use one ability at a time, she chose to stick with the 'flash' ability which still gave her a good amount of speed, even though she no longer had long-range attacks.

Neku was the first to strike, swiping his claws rapidly as Joshua used his sword-arm to defend himself. After repelling a few hits, the Seraph launched a strong thrust which Neku quickly ducked before planning a thrust of his own with his claw. As a quick response, Joshua bent the large sword downwards, clashing the blade with Neku's clawed hand. That was, however, exactly what Neku wanted. With his other claw, he grabbed the white blade and held it in place, preventing the angel from moving his sword-arm.

"Shiki, Now!" Neku signalled to his partner who was already way ahead of him. The cap wearing girl appeared behind Joshua in a flash and reached her hand for the black crystal. Unfortunately though, it wasn't enough to outsmart a Seraph. Using his other arm, Joshua morphed another white blade and would've slashed Shiki's head right off if she hadn't jumped out of the way in time.

A small drop of blood fell to the ground as Shiki placed her hand on a small scratch that had appeared on her neck. "Shiki, you alright?" Neku asked after breaking contact with Joshua's left blade. "I-I'm fine" She replied "More importantly…I think we need another plan"

There actually was another option in Neku's mind. They still hadn't used their 'Soul Unison' yet and it was about time they did. However, they needed to get everything done with that single shot because it would take awhile before they could use it again. Neku signalled over to Shiki with a nod and she did the same, understanding what her partner wanted to do.

"Soul Unison!" They simultaneously yelled out, causing their VPs to once again combine into one single light that revealed the noise-like Mr. Mew. After letting out a trembling growl, it lifted up its arm to summon a violet ball of colossal size. With one last shout, the demon threw the ball at maximum speed. At impact, it created a massive explosion that could even be seen miles away from the tower.

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At the lower floors, Eri and a few other players were fighting their own battles when they heard and felt the loud explosion paired up with a trembling quake

"Wh-What the heck's going on up there?!" The pink haired teen commented, a shocked look on her face. Due to her distraction, a snake type noise leaped towards the unaware girl, but was thankfully saved when a flaming blade sliced it in half

"Thanks Ryou, I owe you one!" Eri said and Ryou nodded. "…There's no need for th-" The sword wielder was stopped mid-way by an ice pillar that suddenly rose up and caught his attention. On the other side of the large popsicle, A bear's claw was stuck, meaning that the block of ice acted as a shield for Ryou.

"…Guess we're even now…" Ryou mumbled before erasing the noise with his blade. From the looks of things, the noise seemed to be thinning out little by little thanks to the combined efforts of all the players. "Hey Ryou, I think it's about time we used that" Eri suggested, making Ryou nod in agreement.

With deep concentration, both teens opened up their minds to unleash their most powerful strike "Soul Unison!" As soon as that was said, Ryou's sword and Eri's hairpin had both vanished into a single light just like any other unison. The difference lied in the product revealed by the light which turned out to be a large and grand sword which had an even mix of blue and red colors, probably symbolizing fire and ice.

Both partners gripped the handle of the large blade and lifted it up. "Back off!" Eri yelled as she helped Ryou slam the sword down to the ground, leading to the creation of a red crystalized ice pillar about ten times the size of a normal tower of ice. After erasing a few noise just by shooting up from the ground, the red triangle of ice suddenly exploded like a bomb, burning all the noise in its area of effect.

The group of players let out a sigh of relief at noticing that their enemies had finally been exterminated. Their smiles however, were turned upside down when a few reinforcements suddenly appeared out of nowhere like a magic trick "Oh boy..." Eri complained "Even after what we did...they still won't take a hike..."

Right now, Eri, Ryou, Kariya and Uzuki had all used their special attacks, but there was still one more pair that had some ammo left "Leave this one to us!" Rhyme cheerfully offered and Beat did the same "We gonna smash em' till they drop, yo!" With focused minds, the two siblings hoped to dispose of the few reinforcements that had arrived at the scene.

"Soul Unison!" they exclaimed followed up by one more bright light that sucked in both Beat's skateboard and Rhyme's precious pendant given by her brother. When the light faded, a green flat wheel-less board appeared which Beat and Rhyme quickly used to speed around the noise like a rocket.

Everyone thought that another tornado would be created due to the sheer speed of the board, but they were mistaken. The green winds, which only became faster by the second, were being spun in a sphere-like rotation, causing the noise to be drawn into the center of the green sphere as if gravity was pulling them.

By the time Beat and Rhyme had stopped spinning around the area in mid-air, a large twirling sphere had been created with their enemies forcedly put inside.

After a short moment, the sphere suddenly shrunk a bit then blew up like a balloon, causing the trapped wind inside the sphere to suddenly burst out and rip the noise to shreds.

During that whole attack, Sho had been using his curious mind to analyze it from top to bottom "So that's how it works" The math wiz mumbled, catching everyone's attention "The wind patterns form a dome-like barrier that sucks in objects instead of pushing them away, just like what happened to the noise. The winds start closing in on the center of the dome where the noise are and finally burst out coz' of the wind pressure. Because the noise are right smack in the middle of the dome, they get more than just a simple paper cut"

Sho's analytical abilities never stopped amazing everyone. His ability to concept things even rivalled the Seraph, Kyo's ability. "And here I thought you were just a math geek. Seems you're just as much a geek in any subject" Kariya said with a grin which made Sho's eye twitch in irritation "You wanna die, wonka?!" Because of that counter statement, a random argument ensued with Uzuki being the one to stop it "SHUT THE HELL UP OR I'LL SHOOT BOTH OF YOU!" She yelled as she pointed her gun at the arguing teens.

"Y-Yes, ma'am…" They both mumbled as a fearful sweatdrop dripped down their foreheads. After the attack that had occurred, the group looked around once again for reinforcements as they kept their guard up. Fortunately, it didn't seem like anymore were about to show up anytime soon.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, up in the highest floor, the composer was finally down for the count with the black crystal behind his neck gone as well. The impact of Neku and Shiki's soul unison had thankfully shattered it along with paralyzing Joshua's angel-like body. "That took awhile" Neku said as he turned to face the black figure sitting on his throne, resting his chin on his fist. "Sorry, but we're taking Joshua back now"

At hearing the boy's statement, the mystery man finally stood up from his seat and started clapping his hands "Hmhm…just what I expected from one of our own" The deep voice said as he stared at Neku's noise arms "The power you display has far exceeded my expectations. This is why…I'd like you to join us"

"Sorry, not in your life" Neku grinned "I don't want anything to do with people like you. But tell me, just who or what are you anyway?" That was a question that Neku continued to ask himself ever since he saw him. He looked like those other three noise that they fought at Akihabara, but this one was different. He was even wearing clothes unlike the others and looked much more human.

"Who am I, you ask?" He said before giving his black hair a quick brush "Let's just say, I'm the one who controls everything here. My name's Saoru Ichijima and I'm more known as…the prince of noise" The man said before shooting a look at an unconscious Joshua, then turned back towards Neku. "Now that I've answered your question, I'd like you to answer mine"

With a raised eyebrow, Neku signalled the so-called prince of noise to ask away "Tell me, Sakuraba. Wouldn't it be nice to have enough power to even overthrow the angels themselves? Oh, I know all about your little game, and I know that if you had that much power, you wouldn't have to do anything they told you to do ever again" That offer actually caught Neku's interest. A chance to put an end to the whole angel's game by having even more power than the Seraphs themselves. "So, how do I get this 'power' that you're talking about?"

"Neku, don't listen to him! He's just making you hear what you wanna hear!" Shiki urgently interrupted, but was stopped by multiple black needles that suddenly floated just inches away from her body "Miss, I strongly suggest that you keep your mouth shut. If you don't…you'll be turned into a human pin cushion" Seeing the sharp objects that put a fearful expression on his friend's face, Neku threatened his enemy by once again revealing his intimidating noise arms "Let go of her right now, or I'll turn _you_ into a pin cushion"

In front of a prince of noise, however, Neku's threat didn't mean a damn thing. In fact, it just made him smile at how easily he could manipulate Neku's feelings by a simple action "Those arms you have right now are still at a weak stage. If you join us…I'll make you even stronger than you'd ever imagine"

Right now, Neku had another battle, this time taking place in his mind. He deeply wanted to end the game as quick as possible and he was being offered a way to do just that. Another part of his mind was telling him to refuse because of the obvious fact that it was their enemy that was offering. If there was one thing that Neku had learned about blind offers, it's that to never accept them. One good reminder was during the reaper's game when he almost even killed Shiki just because of a shortcut out of the reaper's game.

As his mind passed through that particular memory, a resolved look appeared on Neku's face "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to turn down your offer. If there's a way to end this stupid game, I'll find it by my own damn self. I don't need any help you can give me" He confidently said, making his partner smile at his decision.

With an irritated feeling inside the pit of his stomach, the prince of noise suddenly narrowed his eyes with a smirk on his pitch black face "Sorry…but you're coming with us whether you like it or not. You see, when I see something I want, I take it. Just like…HIM!" With a snap of his finger, Saoru suddenly made a never before seen type of sigil appear beneath the composer's body. In a short moment, Joshua faded away into a circle orb of black light which was absorbed into the prince of noise.

"Joshua!" Neku called out as a strange transformation began to occur in Saoru's body. An abnormal transformation that involved his body growing about 10 times his original size, the appearance of six black wings, six long arms with claws, and a figure that looked like it was carved by the devil himself. Even staring into his deep red eyes was enough to make the two take one step back "I…think we'll have some trouble with this one…" Shiki mumbled after hearing a growl so powerful that it smashed the crystal walls surrounding the room, taking the whole roof along with it.

Outside the tower, Hanekoma and Kyo were battling it out with their respective Seraph opponents when they caught sight of the large demon that appeared at the top of the crystal tower "What the hell…is that?" Kyo said as he let go of his aim to look at the abomination. Jean and Maria had stopped as well in order to take a closer look "He…couldn't have" The gentleman muttered before looking at his pink haired companion "Maria, let's go"

As Hanekoma and Kyo watched their enemies fly off towards the top of the shattered tower, their curious minds ultimately convinced them to follow as well "Hey Sanae, what do you think that thing is?" The 'seraph of chance' asked his fellow Seraph who swayed his head in confusion "I've got no clue, but it doesn't look friendly at all" He replied, speeding up his flying.

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"Crap, this is bad. We can't even get close to him at this rate" Neku said before telling his body to jump, avoiding a sweep from the large black noise's arm. He'd timed it perfectly to land directly on the large arm and start using it as leverage to get to the main body. He was stopped mid-way though by another free arm that attempted a swing at him, causing him to jump off the arm he was on. Right now it was more or less a disadvantage for them. Sure it was two against one, but the six arms…just made it seem like the other way around.

Not even Shiki's current speed was enough to make it to the main body in time without coming in contact with the large pestering limbs. "Argh, everything we do just won't work! We can't even use Soul Unison anymore!" The brunette complained as she ducked another of the incoming arms, and then leaped back to dodge yet another, this time slightly spraining her foot upon landing. As soon as she could tell, one more arm threatened to pummel her to the ground.

"Like I'll let you!" Neku yelled as he ran towards Shiki and stood in front of her just in time to shield her from the attack. Little did they know, Saoru had them right where he wanted them now which Neku realized when it was soon too late. "H-He's got us in the center!" He said, realizing that all six arms were now closing in on them like a sandwich and gave them little time to act "There's still a chance!" The orange haired teen thought to himself before quickly shoving his companion away from the range of the attack. Thankfully, he managed to get her to safety just in time, However…

"N-NEKU!!" Shiki screamed at the top of her lungs, a fearful expression on her pale face as she watched a cloud of dust clear out. As her eyes continued to look for any trace of her friend, her heart beat couldn't help but skyrocket as she called out his name again and again until the smog finally disappeared.

The girl's fear soon turned into relief as her eyes caught sight of her blue clad friend who was still fully intact although gripping an injured left arm. "Quit your whining" Neku turned towards her "I'm just fine" Normally, Neku would've been totally crushed by that all-out strike, but for this time he had a little bit of help. With closer inspection, Neku only needed to defend himself from one of the six arms. The other five were currently down on the ground, silver bullets drove into each one.

"Yo, I figured you needed a little help, Sakuraba" Kyo smiled as he lowered his rifle and waved his hand as a greeting. Behind him were the three other Seraphs who took a look at the great big prince of noise "So…" Jean said "You're the prince of noise that's been all the buzz back in the Angel Plane. Just so you know, you look hideous beyond all reason. As a gentleman, I can't allow you to exist"

Hearing that threat, Saoru let out a laugh that was just as similar to his great size. "You won't let me exist, huh? I don't really think that's for you to decide. At this point, not even you lousy Seraphs can stop me, but I'll let you try anyway" At that note, Jean flashed out his rapier and flew straight at the prince of noise.

Not even great speed was enough to dodge all the six arms, but that wasn't his intention. In a split instant, multiple copies of the gentleman appeared and dove into each of the arms, slicing them off the main body before disappearing back into the source. "Whoa, he's actually using his abilities now. I haven't seen him do that in a LONG time" Kyo said, making his shades-wearing buddy grin "The first of three moves of the Seraph of illusions. I've never actually seen the other two, but I hear that it's quite the threat"

The white dressed man took a look at the limbs he'd just disposed of and gave one of them a weak kick "Hmhm…guess that trick won't work now, will it?" Even though it looked like Saoru was in a bad situation, the demon just let out a blunt laugh, confusing his enemies "You're a real idiot if you think that this fight's over. I'm…just getting started"

Cracks suddenly start appearing all over Saoru's body until they fully enveloped it. Inside the cracks, everyone could see something much smaller; almost like a human body or something like that. Little by little, the body was being revealed. It was about the same size and height as Neku's body and had long black hair. it's eyes were still closed and it was crossing its arms across its shoulders. It looked rather familiar, but Neku couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Apparently, the huge body was now shattering like a crystal cocoon which hid something much more powerful inside. Once the outer shell was finally gone, everyone took a look at what was inside, their eyes widening with a mix of confusion and fear. What they saw was a boy with purple eyes, long black hair, a thin body which was pure white with black tattoo patterns etched all over it and finally, a grin that could be recognized by anyone.

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"J-Josh?!" Hanekoma questioned as he looked at the boy in front of them. It looked almost like the composer except for the fact that he had long black hair and that same pattern on his chest when he first absorbed Joshua.

"Bzzzt, wrong. I'm still the same Saoru Ichijima…just with a few adjustments" Even his voice sounded exactly like Joshua's. If they didn't know any better, they'd think that he was just wearing a black wig on his head. That's just how similar he seemed.

"What the hell happened to Joshua, you punk?!" Neku threateningly interrogated the look-alike who let out a sly giggle "Well…let's just say that I'M Joshua now. I mean…now that he's gone and all, there should at least be a replacement, right?"

"You're wrong" Hanekoma interrupted "I can still sense his energy. He's alive and kicking, through that sigil that's on your chest. You can't hide that from me coz' I know what that is. It sucks in a person and transports them directly to your 'soul' where they're trapped with no way to get out…unless…someone with the same power as you gets him out" He explained, shooting a look at Neku. Right now, he was the only one with the power of noise which was needed to enter the sigil and release the composer.

"Haha, so what if you know how it works? Do you even have enough power to even get close to me? I now have the power of a top-class Seraph PLUS my own power! There's nothing you can do to me now!"

"Well that's where you're wrong, stupid hectopascal!" A voice spoke out from the doors behind. Finally, Sho, Ryou, Eri, Beat, Rhyme and the rest of the players had arrived. "You goin' down like a sack'a potatoes, yo!" Beat threatened as he punched his fist into his palm.

Saoru now had a big disadvantage now that he had more than 20 opponents against him, including the Seraphs themselves. But even so, he didn't look threatened or scared at all and the Seraphs knew the reason why: They could sense the amount of power that Saoru had and it would still be useless to fight him even with this many players.

"There's still a way though" Hanekoma said to his teammates "What we need to do is to create the same sigil as him. Fortunately, I know how to do just that, but it's gonna take power that even I don't have. If all four seraphs were to join in though…" Kyo was already roaring to go, but Jean and Maria, being enemies, were still in doubt about that decision. But eventually, the 'Seraph of Songs' agreed to share her power. She was always the peacemaker of the Seraphs and was showing that trait right now.

Seeing that he had no other choice, Jean agreed to pitch in as well, making Sanae smile before continuing his plan. The other players were actually stalling at the moment so they had to come up with something…and fast. "Okay then. Now that we have the power source, we need the person to transfer the power to which will be none other than you, Neku" The blue-eyed teen nodded in agreement, seeing that it was the only option.

"Finally, we need the person to transfer into your 'soul'. Unfortunately it can only be one person so we need to choose wisely. Even if a Seraph was to be transferred into you, it still wouldn't be enough. The person we need is…" Hanekoma suddenly turned around and pointed at a certain brunette standing beside Neku "You, Shiki"

"Huh? Me? But why? Wouldn't a Seraph be a way bigger boost than me?"

"In a normal person's case, then yeah, what you're saying would be correct. But Neku's not really ordinary anymore. He's got the power of noise inside him which could be pretty damn powerful if he'd be able to control it at full power. You remember what happened when Neku went berserk, right?" How could they forget? It was a time when everything almost went up in flames.

"Well that wasn't even Neku at his strongest point yet, but it's still enough to beat this guy. The thing is that he'll be able to control all that power temporarily once his 'soul' obtains enough steadiness. Since you're his partner, you'll be completely synced up with Neku, giving him the steadiness he needs to control it. The only problem is…this is a seriously risky procedure and you could even die if Neku goes berserk again"

Those words put a little fear in Shiki's heart, but she knew that there wasn't any other way. If there was another way, Neku would probably be one of the first to refuse the current plan. "Shiki…are you alright with this?" Neku asked his partner who nodded with a smile "Of course. Let's just do our best!"

Neku nodded with a smile as well before taking a look at the other players who were having a lot of trouble holding out "We gotta move fast. Those guys won't hold out much longer"

As soon as the 'Seraph of divine punishment' had finished drawing the sigil, he asked both Neku and Shiki to stand on two circles on the center of the drawn graffiti. When the four Seraphs were finally in place, they quickly closed their eyes and began to focus all their energy on the center where the two partners were standing back-to-back.

"Neku, be careful okay? And make sure…you bring Joshua back" Shiki warmly said, making her companion smile "Hmph, count on it. This time…I'll make sure to get the job done"

With determination in their minds and hearts, the two teens closed their eyes and felt a bright light suddenly envelope their bodies. "Okay…here goes!" Hanekoma rushed up one more pack of energy into the sigil, finally making it shine brighter than ever on the middle. At the same time, Shiki started to fade away into a pink orb of light which was slowly being absorbed into the person next to her. The light lasted for a few more seconds until it finally vanished, leaving Neku in a transformed state as well.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"I…can feel it. So much power…and I can feel her too. I can feel her energy" There were a few changes now in Neku's form. The first was that the yellow patterns (which now reached up to his cheeks) on his body were now thicker and were actually glowing. The second is that his eyes were now dark yellowish in color instead of the former red of his noise form. The last, and most noticeable, were the six yellow angel-like wings on his back which were similar to Saoru's wings except for their color.

During that whole procedure, Ryou and the rest of the players tried to hold Saoru off as long as they could, but were already exhausted due to the sheer power of the prince of noise. Just like he'd said earlier, he now had Joshua's power mixed in with his own, making him much stronger than before.

"You people…are so boring!" Saoru smirked as he summoned a black circle energy wave that suddenly made everyone's bodies feel exponentially heavier, literally dropping them to the floor.

"I…can't…get up" Eri groaned as she looked over to her fellow teammates to see that only Ryou was still barely balancing himself using his sword despite the great pressure on his body. "I won't…let you!" Ryou immediately pulled his blade out of the ground and ignited it once again as he ran towards his enemy. With a curious grin on the prince's face, he morphed his arm into a dark blade that clashed with Ryou's "Hmm…I can sense something from your right arm…" Saoru said, revealing another blade "But you're not my target yet!" A second later, Ryou's blade was found stuck on the ground, his wrist bleeding with an open cut.

Before he knew it, another sword was slowly creeping up to thrust right through his chest. Ryou thought he'd be a goner this time if it weren't for a yellow claw that managed to grab the blade tightly, preventing it from moving "Sorry bout' the wait" Neku said, making his violet haired companion smile "…No problem…" Ryou wasn't the most expressful person, but he could at least say a few words of gratitude.

Seeing the new enemy in front of him, Saoru backed up a few feet. He could feel power which even rivalled his own. He couldn't really believe it, but it was true and real. "Interesting, your power…just keeps growing" He said as he scanned Neku from top to bottom. "Yeah, I know. But I can't stay like this forever, so…" A sparking energy suddenly surrounded Neku's whole body like a light bulb "I'm gonna have to end this quick!"

With surprising agility, Neku appeared behind Saoru in a flash and would've ran his claw down the noise's throat if he hadn't flown upwards into the pitch black sky "What the hell?! He's even faster than I thought" The noise prince complained before seeing his opponent fly towards him and give his head a quick kick before blasting him at point blank range.

Now that Saoru was off balance, Neku attempted to continue his assault, but was stopped by a sharp pain that suddenly occurred in his head "Damn…I can't lose myself now!" Because of that distraction, Saoru managed to regain his composure and fly right at him, swiping his blade-arms rapidly as Neku guarded with his solid noise arms. At one point, Neku accidentally slipped up, giving his enemy the opening he needed "I got you n—" Saoru's strike was cut short by a sudden silver bullet that almost shot through his head.

"Damn, I can't believe I missed that!" Kyo complained with a smile as Hanekoma and Jean both approached Saoru and sliced two of his wings off, giving him much less mobility. The cornered prince managed to cut himself loose by blasting both Seraphs with black beams, but was stopped in his tracks by a sudden lightning bolt that struck from above "Sakuraba!" Maria said "Finish it now!"

It was rather weird hearing your last name being called by a girl as old as you, but Neku didn't even have time to think about that. With a concentrated mind, he slowly made a fist with his claw as his whole body, even his six wings, started to shine even brighter than the stars in the night sky. "I've just about had enough of you!" And at that note, he flew at Saoru at a speed so fast, all the prince saw was a yellow light that sped right past him and a sharp pain from a claw. Before he could even tell where Neku was, he glided through him once again. Horizontally, vertically, and diagonally…he was striking so fast that no one could even see him anymore.

After hitting him about 40 times, Neku appeared above Saoru and let out one more shout as he struck one last time, finally causing his opponent to fall like a bird shot from the sky "What the hell…happened?" Saoru mumbled before finally hitting the tower floor. He still couldn't believe what was happening. But unfortunately for him, it was all real. No part of it was a dream whatsoever.

The prince of noise heard a quick landing sound beside him and looked up to see the orange haired teen, standing above him with a look of pity as he stared down at his paralyzed opponent "Stop looking at me like that. I…don't need your pity. Just do…what you have to do"

Seeing that his enemy had now given up, Neku slowly put his hand on the sigil that lied on Saoru's chest, making it glow before transporting Neku to an area filled with darkness. "What…is this place? Everywhere I turn, I see nothing but black"

"It's his 'soul'" A familiar voice said, Just as Neku had expected, the real Joshua was now standing right in front of him "Hey…" Neku started "I'm here to get you out" Joshua chuckled at that statement because obviously, he knew that was Neku's plan. "Thanks for stating that Mr. Obvious" The Seraph said, annoying the person who'd risked a lot just to save his hide. "If you wanna stay here then fine, be my guest, smartass"

This was a typical type of conversation between the two. They always had clashing personalities, but deep down, they weren't so bad as friends "Hey Neku" Joshua began, suddenly looking up with a smile "Did you know…that the noise plane was actually a beautiful piece of land filled with crystals?" That explanation came as a surprise to Neku. It was just that looking at the noise plane now, he'd never expect it to actually look that way.

"I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Not only was it filled with crystals, but it was filled with people too" Right now, Neku could sense a different emotion coming from Joshua. He was just so used to seeing him as some snotty kid who did anything he wanted, but now…he could see some kind of nostalgic feeling resonating from the Seraph.

"So…how'd it come to look like this?" Neku asked his long-haired friend, causing him to shrug while swaying his head "I actually don't know. It was a phenomenon that even us Seraphs still can't figure out. One day, noise just started popping up all over the place. And those noise…were actually the people who lived there. You wouldn't imagine how shocked I was when I found out that everyone I knew in that plane were now brainless mumbo-jumbos"

"But…didn't noise come from those pins that the reapers used in the reaper's game?" Neku said, remembering that only reapers had the ability to summon noise "Those noise were just copies of the originals. The noise codes that were placed on those pins had data on the original noise that appeared long ago…in the crystal plane" Neku guessed that the name "Crystal Plane" was what the noise plane was called before that incident.

"My goal…one of my reasons for even joining the Seraphs…is to find a way to return this whole place to how I remembered it. I'll make it happen one day, I'm sure of it" With a smile on his face, Neku walked up to the Seraph and put his fist forward, signalling an informal handshake "Well if you need any help with that, I'm sure I can spare some time"

With a smile of his own paired up with his signature giggle, Joshua clashed his fist with Neku's. "Yeah, I'd appreciate that" And on that phrase, everything suddenly became brighter as if multiple lamps were turned on all at once. It became brighter and brighter until finally…they were back.

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Neku, Shiki, and Joshua all appeared back in the noise plane, but for some odd reason, both Neku and Shiki were unconscious "They must've used up all their energy keeping that form in check. Well done, you two…" Hanekoma said before taking a look at Joshua who was also watching the sleeping teens.

"Hey Josh, welcome back" The middle-aged man said, his tone as calm and cool as ever.

"Thanks, it's good to finally _be _back. Anyway, did these two do what i think they did?" The purple eyed angel asked, gaining a nod from Hanekoma "Yup, we used the 'soul binding' sigil. They actually made it work much better than i thought they would"

"Is that so?" Joshua chuckled "Hmhm...i guess these two_ are_ pretty compatible after all. Anyway, we should get them outta here and let them rest properly"

A few minutes later, the group arrived at the entrance of the noise plane. It was then that Joshua stopped for a moment and took a quick look at his surroundings, remembering how they used to be before that tragic incident: That once bright and cheerful place filled with glittering crystals. Apparently, the tower was the only thing left that was still how he remembered it. He didn't know however, how exactly the tower just suddenly popped up in udagawa, but there wasn't any time left to research on it because the gate was already making its close "One day...it'll happen. Just hang tight till then" He softly mumbled, a small smile on the Angel's face

(Neku's POV)

After that really exhausting mission, i woke up the next morning to find that Joshua was now living in the same dorm as the rest of us. And guess what else happened? We get a two month vacation from the Angel's game because of their 'change of heart'. Mr. H told me after i woke up that Jean was pretty thankful to us for helping him save Joshua. He said that 'Even though we think of him as a traitor, he's still one of us" or something along those lines. He even gave Mr. H a second chance. Who knew the pansy 'gentleman' had it in him? I just hope Mr. H tries to NOT break the rules this time...

Speaking of Joshua...i still can't forget what he told me when we were in the noise plane...or 'crystal plane' for that matter. I remember him telling me that one of the reasons of him becoming a Seraph was to bring back the crystal plane. I seriously have _no_ idea on how the hell he's gonna do that, but hey, we're all willing to pitch in...just as long as he doesn't piss me off...which i think will happen eventually...

But i wonder, just what was his other reason for becoming a Seraph? It didn't look like he wanted to tell me which makes me even more curious than ever. And another thing, why does he care about the crystal plane so much? He said it was important, but i wanna know _why_ it's so important. Gaarrrgghh...all this thinking's pssing me off. I knew he was gonna piss me off sooner or later but i didn't think it would be THIS early.

You know what, i think I'll just put those on the side for now coz' i plan to enjoy every single second of my hard earned 'vacation'. It's already the 15th of december. It's really getting cold now and that wasn't the only thing i've been looking forward to. The 25th should be pretty interesting (If you don't know why then you've probably lived under a rock for too long). A few days later is the New Year's winter festival. Hmph, this is the first time i'm actually spending it with friends so...let's see what happens. See you there?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And i hope you enjoyed the conclusion to 'Season 1'. Well it's not exactly the conclusion yet because of the two next chapters which will have much more comedy than all this serious stuff. The next chapter will be about Neku's first christmas with his new friends. The one after will be about the new year's winter festival. I've already hinted on the festival on one of the past chapters so if you've been reading thorough enough, you might be able to guess one thing that'll come out in that chapter. Btw, if you don't quite understand the plot in some parts, give me a ring and i'll see what i can do. I might expand more on them using skits or on the chapters themselves. Oh and i've also uploaded another concept pic on my deviantart page. Once again it's gibderDOTdeviantartDOTcomWell it's about time for me to hit the sack so i'll be leaving you now with the skit which has more explanations on a few more newcomers to the series. Bye!

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Shiki: Hey all you viewers! If you've just tuned in, we're just about to show you some more profiles of a few more newcomers to 'TWBWY'. Now if you'll just look at the brand new monitor we just got.  
*Some kind of seriously huge HD TV appears*  
Neku: The hell?! Now it's in Hi-def?!  
File Name: Eri Sarakane  
A girl that Shiki took the form of during the reaper's game. Her VP is a hair clip in the shape of a yellow star which Shiki gave to her. Her ability is the control of ice pillars using her zodiac pin, but she  
can also freeze things that are rather small in size. She has a very cheerful personality and is sometimes very protective, especially towards her best friend, Shiki. She currently has a soul unison  
pact with the Archangel, Ryou  
Neku: You two're really that close, huh?  
Shiki: Yup! She'll always be one of my closest friends. Anyway, here's the next one  
File Name: Jean Javier  
Seraph number 9 of the 12 seraphs. He is a self-proclaimed gentleman although a few of his actions tell a different story. His nickname is the 'Seraph of Illusions' which matches him just right  
because of his habit of toying with others like some kind of game. Sanae Hanekoma calls him 'that devious fella' because of this. His weapon is a white rapier which he uses to maximize his abilities,  
One of them involving multiple illusions of himself.  
Neku: I don't think i'm ever gonna like this guy...  
Shiki: Ditto...  
File Name: Saoru Ichijima  
The prince of noise who has an ambition of having enough power to destroy the Seraphs. His whereabouts after the battle with Neku and co. are still unknown. He'd suddenly vanished right after  
Neku had brought Joshua back. Saoru also seems to take the same form as Joshua except for the color of his hair, probably from absorbing him into the sigil.  
Neku: How many more nut-cases like him are there gonna be?!  
Shiki: Fortunately, that's the last one coz' we're kinda running outta time. Well, see you next time folks!


	16. Merry Christmas, Shibuya!

Hey, I'm back. Firstly, I'd like to apologize for the long wait. There were some reasons for this. One: School's finally started, Two: I'm kinda lacking the motivation I need which led me to a few days of writer's block and finally, because I've been working on a concept art (Which is now colored and contains seven characters namely Neku, Shiki, Eri, Ryou, Joshua, Beat and Rhyme). If you'd like to see it, please visit my deviantart page. Once again, it's gibderDOTdeviantartDOTcom. Just change all the (DOT) into actual periods (.)  
Also, please take note that Mr. Mew will sometimes be adding a 'meow' at the end of his sentences. I don't know why but i thought it'd be appropriate for a comical character like him.

The World Begins With You  
Chapter 16: Merry Christmas, Shibuya!

* * *

The day before Christmas: a time when people start finalizing all their shopping for the big day. People all over Shibuya are walking through the even busier streets as they have a lot of laughs and merry-making along the way. There was one person however, that still wasn't really enjoying his day so far. Actually, it was more of a 'drag' right now…

"When are we _finally_gonna be done with all this shopping?" An irritated Neku said, a whole lot of bags in his hands "Whenever you actually think we're finished, there's always ONE more thing we need to get" Beside the porcupine, a silent Ryou also had a ton of bags in his hands although he never seemed to complain. Then again, he never seemed to mind about anything, anytime. The two girls with them didn't seem to be carrying anything though.

"Well, this time we're really almost done" Shiki said as she checked a slip of paper which Eri also took a look out "Let's see…we need two more wreaths, one Christmas ornament for the tip of the tree, and…wait, what's this? A…santa suit for Mr. Mew?" Shiki quickly hid the list away from her best friend upon hearing that last to-do. "W-well I thought it'd look good on him…"

"You've gotta be kidding me. Why the hell does he even need a—" And just like always, the stuffed animal once again swiped his claw on Neku's face, causing three red lines to appear on it.

"Stop being so mean, big bro!" The toy cat exclaimed as Neku once again felt his blood pressure shoot through the roof. This was something even the dimmest person could see. He was just so annoyed sometimes by Mr. Mew that he just couldn't help but argue. After all, who wouldn't get angry if some kind of walking toy would just jump up and scratch your face?

"You're the one who's being a pain in the ass, you little twerp!" Neku yelled back, gripping the doll by its fluffy head. It seemed that there was at least one 'person' who could annoy him as much as Joshua could. Speaking of the seraph, he was also doing his part of the christmas shopping when he bumped into Neku and the other three. "Oh, hey there. finishing up your part of the list i see. Seriously, i don't know why Mr. H gave me a list too, but i guess i can't really complain" Aside from them, Beat, Rhyme, and a few other players got lists too. A huge party was to take place at the Shibuya dorm (over at Yokkasune) and a LOT of preparations had to be done. Especially because the dorm was still new, it needed a few more decorations besides those meant for Christmas.

As the fellow players continued their chat, Ryou decided to sway his eyes around the large 104 plaza, seeing all the joyous smiles on everyone's faces as they walked along. There were couples, siblings, relatives and even a few brats here and there although no one seemed to mind at all due to all the fun that they were having. "...Everyone seems...so lively today..." The black clad teen interrupted, a small smile on his almost expressionless face.

"Of course they are!" Eri cheerfully said "It's Christmas! It's that day of the whole year when everyone's up and about!" Even Eri seemed more cheerful than her usual happy self. Ryou didn't seem to really understand it though and the pink haired girl quickly saw that on his face "What's wrong Ryou? Don't you celebrate christmas back home at the angel plane?" She asked, making Ryou sway his head "Actually...i don't. It's really nice seeing all these people here though..."

Joshua could see the depression on his subordinate's face and quickly decided to brighten up his mood "So this'll be your first actual celebration right? We better make sure you have fun then? Right guys?" Joshua looked over to his friends who nodded happily in reply. "Hey, i got an idea" Eri began "Why don't you learn how to play tin-pin slammer, Ryou? I'm sure you'll have fun with it. I mean if someone like _Neku_ has fun with it, then I'm sure you will too"

Hearing that offer, Ryou slowly nodded his head with a grateful smile "I think...I'd like that. Thanks" Neku was still bothered about Eri's statement about him though. He had a feeling it was more of an insult towards him...

After a few more minutes of shopping for the last of the items on their lists, the group decided to head over to Molco where a new tin-pin stadium had been put up. It wasn't that large, but playing tin-pin didn't actually require that much space at all. It was more like playing with spinning tops, except for the occasional times when players had to move their heads out of the way so that flying pins wouldn't smack straight on their foreheads. Strangely though, Ryou was the one smacking the opponent's pins out and not the other way around.

"H-He's better than i thought! Who knew Ryou was such a fast learner. Kinda reminds me of you, Shiki" Eri said, remembering the time when she managed to beat Neku on a game of tin-pin. There was something recent that Neku had found out though "Yeah, except those pins were modified big time. Good thing it dropped outta your bag, huh Shiki" Neku grinned at the cap wearing girl who in turn grinned back "Oh yeah? Well even if those weren't modified, i've gotten a lot better now so i still think i could take you on"

"_A chance for some pay-back"_Neku thought. Just hearing that challenge was music to his ears. One thing Neku didn't like was losing. Especially if it wasn't on fair terms.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Strangely though, even if Shiki had used modified pins before, Neku was still being forced to play out everything he had "_What the hell's going on? Sure i've got 3 pins left and she only has two, but she's still putting up a pretty good fight..." _He thought, carefully watching his opponent's movements. So far, he'd analyzed that Shiki usually stayed on the offensive whenever Neku's pin was nearing the edge. Whenever the tables are turned however, she starts ordering her pin to start moving out of range until she finally gets close to the middle of the stage.

Right now, Neku's pin was already close enough to be struck out even with the slightest push "Got you!" Shiki said as her pin quickly dashed forward. With a focused face, Neku immediately put up a spike ball trick which Shiki noticed just in time. Her pin suddenly stopped centimetres away and flashed out a silver hammer. "I knew you'd do that" The blue clad teen said before quickly stopping the spike ball and moving out of the hammer's range. Aside from dodging it, he also used that time to move behind the pin and timed a strike perfectly between the interval of the swings, knocking it out of the stage.

"Aww...i didn't see that coming" She mumbled "But it's not over yet" With her last pin, Shiki made it jump and dive towards Neku's pin. Seeing her plan, Neku quickly used a spike ball and countered, making his opponent's pin unable to move. Neku then continued on the offensive and repeatedly pushed Shiki's pin back. That was exactly her plan though. Before she made her pin dive, she noticed that Neku's was still close to the edge and so she planted her pin opposite Neku's. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to knock Shiki's pin out before it regained movement, allowing her to counter with one more spike ball, this time paralyzing Neku's pin.

With a quick spin around her foe, Shiki finally knocked it out of bounds with one push. "Don't get too cocky. I've still got two left" Neku said as his next pin popped up in the field. Neku thought that since Shiki only had one left, she'd start to stay more on the offensive. Turns out that he was right. Neku's pin swayed left to dodge one more dive and then moved out of range from a hammer. It was then that the match had been decided. With one more dive from Neku, Shiki's pin was stunned and left without any protection left. "Guess i win" Neku said before finally knocking the paralyzed circle out of the stage.

Even though he'd won, Shiki surely did give him a hard time which was worth some praise "Well, you sure've gotten better at this. Just who taught you how to play that good anyway?" He asked his opponent who smiled teasingly "Sorry, can't tell you. It's a really big secret after all" Neku was the type of person that could easily get curious over something minimal and hearing that phrase once again sparked that curiosity. Fortunately though, he was real good at ignoring things just as quickly "At any rate" Neku smiled "Nice game"

"Mhmhm, thanks!" And on that cheerful note, Joshua checked the time on his phone to see that it was already 3:32 PM. They still needed to get back to the dorm and finish up all the preparations in time for the party. For some reason, Hanekoma hadn't only invited all the players, but there were a lot more guests invited as well...which called for even more than first planned.

Back at Yokkasune, Neku and co. could once again see the slightly decorated dorm in the distance, surrounded by many houses, stores and other buildings which made the dorm look like a thorn among roses "We seriously need to fix this dorm up quick..." Joshua sighed as the group walked towards their home. Inside, everyone was already either putting up decorations or taking a nap from exhaustion. Because of the recent angel's game, no one really had the time to place all the decorations so today was more or less 'cram day'.

"Well" Eri began "I better head outside to make the dorm look more 'glamorous'" As the red head exited through the front door, Shiki wondered what she meant by that statement, but was quickily elaborated by Joshua "I think she's gonna do something with all the ice. Anyway, we should get started too...because these bags are getting pretty heavy..." The Seraph looked over his shoulder to see that Neku and Ryou were barely holding on as well. It was like carrying a chair with a full grown adult sitting on it.

The group immediately got started on helping their fellow players fix up the dorm real nice. They were hanging banners, wreaths, decorating the humongous christmas tree (which caused another argument between Mr. Mew and Neku, ultimately leading the porqupine to hang the toy on the tip of the tree), and even giving the walls and a few pieces of furniture a new paint job. It was a really good thing there were a lot of people helping out or it would've been impossible to get done.

Outside, Eri and Ryou were working on some giant ice sculptures "Okay Ryou, are you ready?" Eri called out to her friend who was on top of the building's roof, nodding to confirm. In a split second, multiple large ice pillars shot from the ground, signalling Ryou to jump down from the building top and quickly take out his pyro blade, jumping from one pillar to the other as he sliced them into shape. It took awhile, but it really gave out good results. There were at least six ice statues that were shaped as a Santa claus, reindeer, sleigh, elf, star, and heart figures.

Even Eri herself was surprised by the results. She didn't think it would turn out _that_well "Wow, these look really amazing! Great job, Ryou!" Eri wasn't the only one surprised. All the nearby folks saw what happened and were shocked as well beyond reason. They thought that there was some kind of top-notch ice machine close-by and that Ryou was some kind of circus performer/sculptor.  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

back inside, Beat and Rhyme were putting on quite a spectacular show as well. Using their 'soul unison', they created a large green floating circle in mid-air with patterned winds twirling inside it. The trick was that Beat made the winds significantly weaker, causing them to float everywhere in the sphere while not exploding due to the weak wind pressure. Inside the ball, multiple objects like colorul paper and other decorative objects were mixed inside which made it look like a nice giant snowglobe floating in the large living room. It was a prime example of using destructive powers in a not-so-destructive way.

Thanks to everyone's _unique_way of home improvement, a large amount of work was done in a surprisingly short amount of time. It was only nearing 5:30 and things were looking pretty good. People would start arriving around 7 so there was still plenty more time to get things finished up. There was however, one certain person that hadn't showed up during the whole preparation process: One certain math wiz named Sho minamimoto.

"Hey guys, have you seen Sho anywhere? I haven't seen the guy ever since we started" Neku asked, making Joshua and the others finally realize that as well "Oh yeah, now that you mention it, i haven't seen him either. I wonder where he is" Joshua mumbled as he rubbed his chin. Sho was known as a person who had a style for being late, but he never actually tried being_ that_late before, which was something that put slight worry in everyone's heads.

"I think I can help you guys out with this problem" Kariya interrupted, catching everyone's attention "Me and Einstein never really talked much during the reaper's game, but we've been getting along a little bit now that we've been living under one roof. I remember him telling me that he hated christmas for some reason although he never told me what it was. I also saw him leave this morning with a bouquet of flowers in his hand, and a really grim look on his face"

"A bouquet of flowers? Is he going on a date?" Shiki blindly asked, making Neku sigh at that statement "Who the hell goes on a date with an angry look on his face? Maybe if you actually plan to _kill_your date, but i don't think Sho's that much of an ass" Neku didn't know much about dates, but he wasn't stupid either. Since a date was out of the question, there was still another thing on their minds although they'd hoped that they were wrong "I've got the strangest feeling he's down at the cemetary" Joshua said "I dunno why, but a pretty good hunch is telling me so" Everyone else thought the same thing as well. The thing was, it didn't seem to connect that Sho would visit someone at a cemetary. It just didn't seem like him, but even the craziest people had something important to them.

As a search party, Neku, Shiki, Joshua, Ryou, Eri and the Bito siblings went out to look for the genius. A lot of time had passed since Kariya saw Sho take off so as a safety measure, they split into two groups to look for him. Neku, along with Shiki and Joshua, headed for the cemetary while the rest looked in other places where he might've gone.

At Shibuya Memorial (At Miyashita park)...

The three teens were now surrounded by numerous tombstones in a wide area of nicely cut grass mixed with an orange setting sky. It surprisingly wasn't snowing yet but it would anytime soon. For a few minutes, they looked around the large memorial hoping to find who they were looking for. "'m not sure he's even here anymore" Joshua began, "Actually, i don't even think _anyone's_here for that matter. People don't usually visit graves in this time of year". Joshua had a good point, but different people have different values and applied to Sho as well. At the corner of her eye, Shiki suddenly spotted the math wiz a little further to the back, sitting down on the grass as he stared at the grave in front of him.

"Sho?" Shiki said, suddenly surprising the black coated man "W-What the hell're you 000's doin' here?!"

"We're here to get you back to the dorm. There's still some things we need fixed over there" Neku interrupted, arms crossed and eyes narrowed as if he was looking for an answer. "Oh, so that's it?" Sho said as he stood up from his former postition and smacked some dust off his pants "Fine...i think i've spent enough time here. Let's go" But before they could get anywhere, Shiki bent down to take a look at what was written on the grave. She was just as curious as the other two. "In memory of Yuki Sasagawa...1992-2007" She mumbled before catching sight of the plain bouquet of flowers sitting quietly atop the stone.

"Yuki Sasagawa...a friend of yours?" Joshua asked although Sho remained silent with narrowed eyes; An obvious sign that he didn't want to talk about it "Don't be shy. I think you'll feel a bit better if you talk about it" Eventually, Sho gave up. He had to admit that there was at least a small part of him that wanted to at least say a word or two "You guys remember that players can become reapers when they beat the game, right?" He asked, gaining a nod from the three. They remembered the time when Beat chose to become a reaper after reaching the end of the first round.

"Well...i was one of the players in a game before the one you guys played in. I could've actually been called the best damn player in that game coz' to me, the game was a breeze. That Yuki Sasagawa was my partner during that game. I was always acting lazy and doing stuff like taking my sweet time with all the missions, but she was different. She kept telling me to 'give it all i've got' and kept buzzing around me like a fly. Funny thing is...i eventually even got to like all that pestering and because of her, my ass was saved a couple of times"

For once, everyone could sense that Sho was talking from the heart due to the simple fact that he wasn't even using any of his well-known catch phrases. "When we finally got to the game master on the last day, i really thought we were finally gonna get out of that hell hole...but i was dead wrong. Actually...it was only _me_that got out. Eventually, we gave the GM a beat down, but i got careless. I didn't think the GM could do shit anymore but it turns out he had one final damn trick up his sleeve. The guy was a friggin' psycho and he even blew himself up just to make sure he'd take us with him. I wasn't ready for that attack one single bit...and because of that...Yuki ended up taking the full hit for me. I guess...you can tell what happens next. This day, was when that all happened"

Hearing that story made a lot of sense to the group. From the info he'd gathered up, Joshua could make up one final conclusion about Sho "I see...so i'm guessing that's why you wanted to take the composer's seat away from me, right? But the thing is...if Yuki was erased during that game, then there wouldn't be a zit of a chance for you to bring her back even if you became composer. Her soul...would've been long gone by then"

"I know" Sho began "But it was worth a shot. It was _my_own goddamn fault that she's gone. It was the least i could do for her...but i guess it'll never happen now, huh?" He concluded with a smile although it wasn't a smile of joy, but rather a smile full of regret for everything he'd done. Neku and Shiki felt bad for him too. They always thought that Sho was just your average mathematcian psychopath, but they never took the time to really know him. In truth, Neku's experience in the reaper's game was quite similar to Sho's. The difference was that Neku managed to change himself faster than Sho could. _"If he'd only stop to think about what he was doing...than maybe" _After entertaining that thought, Neku took a look over at Shiki and remembered that they weren't so different.

Back then, Neku was just like Sho in the sense that he was always trying to get things done his own way without listening to anything anyone else had to say. But because of all the people he'd met in that game, he eventually took a hint for the better and saved him from his own self.

"There's something still bothering me though" Joshua started, "Every person in charge of a reaper's game is either a Seraph or at least someone with enough power to bring back players. If i recall the rules correctly in the past games, partners of the winner are given a second chance to play the game again even if they've been erased. Wasn't that the same in your case?"

Sho swayed his head slowly in rejection "No, it wasn't. I kept asking the composer of that game to bring her back, but he never did. The guy was wrapped with some kind of robe that was so thick, you couldn't even see the dude's face" Hearing that description managed to spark a thought in Joshua's head "Wrapped in a robe so thick you couldn't even see his face, huh? It's gotta be _him_"

Neku repeated that last word in a questioned tone, making the Seraph nod his head as he rubbed his chin "Kazu Sera AKA The Seraph of knowledge. That's one guy that just won't stop experimenting on the tiniest things. In my opinion, the guy's even a bigger psycho than Jean. He's actually the one that created the Soulless using the bodies of fallen angels. Freaky, huh?"

Just thinking about the Soulless put a bad taste in Shiki's mouth. If this certain person was the one who created the Soulless, then he seemed to be more than your average mad scientist in one of those horror movies.

Finally, a small smile crept up on Joshua's face "Saying that, i think there's still a chance I can bring Yuki back. If Kazu's doing what i think he's doing, than maybe it's too soon to give up"

Hearing that statement immediately lit up the genius' face just a little bit. It was the first sign of Joy he'd shown the whole day. "Are you for real? You can really do that?" He asked, causing Joshua to cross his arms with a smile "Well, it won't hurt to try right? And besides, i think i owe you one for giving you a total beat down during the reaper's game" At that point, Joshua's smile had turned into a sly grin which made Sho do the same "Heh, don't think i've forgotten that. I'll get you back for that one day"

Even though it seemed like a friendly conversation, Neku and Shiki could almost see lightning sparking in between Joshua and Sho's eyes "Hey Neku, is it just me or did the atmosphere just get really tense?" Shiki said, making Neku shrug with an eyebrow raised "No clue. I guess Sho didn't take that beating very well"  
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It was now evening in Shibuya which also meant the start of the well prepared party over at the Yokkasune dorm. After meeting up with Sho, everyone had proceeded back to finalize every single bit of decorations and things alike. It was actually a very impressive work of art. The whole dorm looked like it was ready for five parties in a row. Even random people and friends alike decided to check it out due to their curiosity, and because of the banner outside that said 'Shibuya open christmas party". In seconds, the building was filled with people talking and laughing their hearts out; Just like Christmas should be.

Even the players had invited some friends of their own and were soon talking with them as well. Neku on the other hand, wasn't really enjoying the party as much as everyone else. He just couldn't really bring himself to start conversing with the people around him, that of which his friends soon noticed "Yo Phones, you feelin' awright?" Beat asked before his kid sister interrupted, "Come on, Neku. It's Christmas. You'd feel better if you tried to enjoy it as much as you can" She said, being that same person who'd always try to make her friends feel better no matter the situation.

Moments after, Shiki, Eri, and Ryou approached the blue clad boy as well "She's right, Neku" Eri began "I mean, it's Ryou's first christmas with friends too and he's not doing too bad" She had a point. Ryou wasn't exactly the person who'd speak first, but he tried talking to people even if they were the ones who usually started the conversation.

"Well...it's just that-" Neku was suddenly halted when Shiki grabbed his wrist with both hands and gently pulled him up from his seat "No excuses, Mr. 'I don't like talking to people'. You should make your first christmas as memorable as possible and we're gonna help you do that whether you like it or not" She said, dragging Neku along with her as he repeately ordered her to stop. The rest followed behind with smiles on their faces.

At first, Neku didn't actually talk much but thanks to the constant pushing from his friends (With the exception of Ryou because he didn't talk much either), he eventually started replying to whatever was being said to him. He never actually started a topic, but he at least kept it going even for a short while. Things like music or CAT were some of the certain things that really pushed his mouth to speak. He knew quite a bit about those topics so it wasn't so bad.

After about 30 minutes of chatting, the lights suddenly all dimmed out and focused themselves on one particular spot on the highest floor of the building. Everyone's gathered attentions likewise focused themselves on that spot to see all three Seraphs in their creative looking Santa costumes. "Attention, everyone" Joshua started, a small microphone in hand "We hope you've enjoyed the party so far. Next up, a special christmas event" He said before handing Kyo the microphone.

"Yup, that's right. Firstly, allow me to explain the details. All throughout Shibuya, 'santa-themed' pigs'll be roaming around. The trick here's that you won't be able to see them with just the naked eye" The Seraph of Chance then handed the sound ampliefier over to Hanekoma who took out a phone from his pocket. "You'll be using one of these. Let's just say it's...special in a way. When you get close to one of the pigs, the phone'll start beeping with the sound of a really catchy 'oink'; the louder the sound, the closer you are. When you think you're close enough, start up the camera and scan around. If you're lucky enough, you'll even find a certain black pig wearing a santa hat. If you see it, snap a photo of it and bring it back here. All those that manage to snap a pic of one of the pigs gets a consolation prize, but the _one_ team that brings back the picture of the black pig gets the grand prize. All clear?"

The players didn't seem so surprised at what he'd just said but the other guests' faces told a different tale. It was expected though since they had no knowledge whatsoever of what had been happening recently. Everyone was asked to form groups of six members which was just right for Neku and his friends.

Now roaming the night streets of Shibuya, the group searched various places and districts in the hopes of hearing the phone 'oink'. It was a bit harder than they'd thought though. "This is seriously whack" Neku said "Everytime we actually hear the phone beep, it goes away after a good five seconds"

After the complaint though, the phone suddenly beeped, but it wasn't the oink that they needed. "A text message?" Shiki asked before Neku pressed his finger on a button to display the message which read "SDROCER AWOT". "Sometin's telliln' me we're being punk'd, yo" Beat complained as the rest tried to analyze what was written on the virtual screen.

"Wait a minute" Rhyme started, "Maybe it means...TOWA RECORDS?" Eri swayed her eyes over the phrase once again and realized that maybe her companion was right "She's got a point. I think the words are inverted" Eri said, making the others realize that as well. It was probably a clue for the game but then again, it might've just been a trick. Unfortunately though, there wasn't much to go on so they decided to play it by ear.

At Towa Records district...

"So, did we get a signal yet?" Shiki asked her orange haired friend who shot a look at the 'special' cel. "Well, there's nothing ye-" At that point, a sound was suddenly echoed from the phone which sounded very familiar and nostalgic to Neku's ears.

"That's it alright...If that's not an oink then i don't know what is..." He said as he walked along, slowly pointing the phone in different directions as they went. With each step, the sound only became louder and louder unlike their previous attempts. Eventually, the group had come across a small alley beside the humungous music building. When Neku pointed the phone towards the narrow area, an even louder sound shot from it, leading everyone to think that they were finally in the right place.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Alright, here goes nothing" With a press of a button, a moving camera appeared on the cellphone's screen which Neku took a careful look at. Just as expected, a very unique looking black pig was seen wearing a cone shaped santa hat. "Bingo. Well, smile for the camera piggy" And with one more push of a button, a flash appeared followed by the sound of a quick snap. Much to everyone's surprise however, nothing came up on the screen right after the snap except a blurry black image. "Huh? What the hell?" Neku mumbled as he checked to see if the phone was defective.

What he should've checked was if the pig was actually even there anymore because apparently, it wasn't "Yo, Phones! I think Porkchop's gettin' away!" Beat exclaimed, making Neku jerk his head up and check his phone "Damnit, you're right! The signal's getting weaker!" On that urgent note, everyone immediately sped off from the alley and headed to the main street where Neku checked his camera again. "He's making a run for it!" He yelled, dashing off to pursue the black animal with everyone following behind.

For some strange reason, the pig was incredibly fast and Neku could see it getting smaller and smaller on his camera due to the fact that their distance was gappening. "Grr...it's friggin' fast!" He complained before feeling a hand grab the phone from his own. "Just leave it to me, yo!" As soon as Beat hopped on his skateboard, he quickly flew off like a formula car towards the dressed pig. "You ain't shoving me off that easily, yo!"

Surprisingly enough, Beat had reached the pig within seconds and was now close enough to take a clear photo of it. "Got you now, punk!" But he was wrong for the pig hadn't given up hope just yet. Strangely enough, the pig's feet were suddenly replaced by wheels that had popped up like a robot, making Beat's eyes widen in shock at its gained speed "W-WHAT THE HELL?! THAT AIN't NORMAL, YO!" He said, trying to speed himself up to match his enemy's own speed. Unfortunately, he was still much slower and was soon being left behind by the running piece of pork. "Gaahhh! What up with this pig?!"

Just as all hope seemed lost, a figure suddenly jumped from a small building and landed right in front of the pig, a fiery blade in his hand and a killing intent on his face. "...Stop...or you die..." Ryou muttered, making the pig stop dead in its tracks with fear as great as the ocean. Thanks to Ryou's distraction, Beat had managed to snap a clear shot of the black little pig.

"Thanks fo' the save, Ryou. But...just how'd you get over here anyway?" The blonde asked, making the angel blink twice before pointing at a narrow road to the left"...Shortcut. You didn't see it...?" Much to Beat's surprise, there actually _was _another street that would've led them to the pig without much trouble at all. "Damn, you coulda told us sooner, ya know?" He said as his body unconcsiously drooped down with a sigh.

In a few moments, Neku and the rest had finally caught up with Beat and Ryou. When the black-clad teen told them about the shortcut, they immediately complained just like Beat had.

"Anyway" Neku began "What i don't get is how exactly you were able to see the pig, Ryou. I thought you needed the phone's camera for that?" Ryou shrugged at that said statement "...I'm not really sure what happened either. I just felt something and decided to go along with it..."

"So...you were going on a hunch?" Eri interrupted, making the sword wielder nod with that same clueless face that had always stayed there "You're really something else you know, Ryou?" Still, there had to be a reason behind that although right now, it was more or less impossible to figure out.

With a confused look on her face, Shiki approached the black pig, inspecting it from top to bottom. The most peculiar thing about it were the wheels which replaced its feet. "I dunno bout' you guys, but i don't think pigs should normally have wheels..." And just like her, everyone thought the same, but before they could think anymore, the black fleshy creature suddenly opened up like a robot, making everyone back away with caution. "Geez...this thing's like an animal version of a transformer" Neku mumbled as he continued to observe the pig's mechanical movements. As the pig continued to open up, the group's alertness hightened until finally, it opened up completely, revealing what being lay inside.

"Hey everyone! Surprised to see me, meow?" A black stuffed cat said as it leaped out of the seemingly mechanical animal, waving his hand back and forth with a smile. At seeing Mr. Mew, everyone's jaws dropped as fast as lightning and Shiki finally realized that the cat hadn't been with them the whole time. Apparently, no one had noticed that the doll had been gone for some time. "Uhh...weren't you with us awhile ago? Oh, wait...I can't really remember..." Neku said as he stared up, trying to recall whether he'd really seen the cat or not.

"What?! I can't believe you didn't even notice, meow..." Mr. Mew sadly said as tears flowed out of his grey colored pupils, a feeling of forgotteness crawling over his plushy body. With a warm smile, Shiki walked towards the saddened black cat and picked it up. "Oh, I'm so sorry i forgot about you. I promise I'll make it up to you somehow" She said before giving the toy a hug.

"But seriously..." Neku interrupted "Weren't you with us awhile ago...?"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at the dorm, Joshua had revealed the now obvious plot wherein Mr. Mew was to control the black iron pig which was crafted by none other than Hanekoma. Neku still couldn't believe how far Hanekoma's limits exceeded when it came to inventions, but he dared not to question that any further.

"Well I'm sorry to tell you, but you won't be receiving the grand prize even though you'd managed to take a photo" Joshua said with a grin, causing Neku's eye to twitch in irritation "Why the hell not? We did what you said, didn't we?"

"Of course you did, but tell me, you guys used a pin ability to help you out am i right?" The long haired Seraph mentioned, making Neku and co. shoot angry looks at Beat. During the whole capture process, it was him that had used a pin ability to speed himself up. "Whoa, whoa, hold up guys. If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have gotten a pic in the first place, right?"

"Wrong" Joshua grinned "I can recall that there was a specific route that Ryou took which helped you get the picture. If you'd only given the phone to him, he would've taken the picture himself. So my judgement is telling me...it's not just Beat's fault, but it's also Neku's for giving Beat the phone, and Ryou who forgot to tell everyone about the shortcut"

Right now, the girls were staring angrily at the guys for being the whole reason for the screw up. But, most of the blame was towards Ryou for making the biggest mistake of all although he didn't even know up to this point that he had made a huge error "Did i... do something wrong...?" The clueless angel asked, finally irritating his friends to their brinks.

"OF COURSE YOU DID, YOU NUMBSKULL!!!!!"

Sometime around 11:30 P.M...

Neku was now at the dorm's rooftop, staring below at the lit streets of Yokkasune and all the people that walked by although there weren't as many anymore. The party had ended a few minutes ago, finally leaving Neku with some alone time. He always liked being alone at least once in awhile. It was just one old habit that he'd never be able to throw away.

As he leaned his arms on the silver railings, his mind recalled all the other past Christmas celebrations that he'd had before. _"It's amazing how fast things change. One minute you're alone...and the next minute you've got a whole bunch of people beside you"_

There were also a few times when a certain someone snuck up on him during his alone time. And that person decided to do just that once again "Hey, Neku. Enjoying your 'alone time'?" Shiki suddenly asked, surprising the daydreaming boy. "You're really like a ninja you know that?" Neku replied, making his companion chuckle

"You've been coming here a lot ever since we moved into this dorm" Shiki said, "I know coz' I sometimes here footsteps late at night and there's only _one_ person i know who'd sneak out of his room that late" She knew him like an open book which was something Neku thought of as a nuisance a _lot_ of times.

"Hey, Shiki" Neku began "What do you think was the grand prize that Joshua was talking about?" He asked his cap wearing friend who clasped her hands behind her back "I have no idea. But knowing Joshua, it probably wasn't much anyway" Shiki joked. Neku had to agree with her on that though.

"Can I ask a question now?" Shiki said and Neku replied with a curious look. "What was it like? Your other christmas experiences i mean"

Hearing that question, Neku let go of the iron railings and faced the opposite direction, leaning his back this time on the solid bars "Nothing special, i guess. Until i was 8 years old, I used to spend them with my parents, but i wasn't so fond of them either. They were always arguing and shouting about a whole ton of things and Christmas didn't really make much of a difference. Sure they were a bit nicer and happier, but after that, it all came crashing down again. When I turned nine, my dad died in a car crash and i found myself spending Christmas alone with my mom. That time, i thought that just maybe...she'd be happier than she was before, but i was dead wrong"

Neku paused for a moment, taking a look at the sky before continuing "She just got more stressed out with work and was even acting a bit worse than she did before dad died. When I finally got some independence of my own, i decided that it was best...if I just moved out"

Shiki stopped herself from talking to analyze what had just been said to her. After a moment of gathering her thoughts, she began to speak. "Do you...regret it?" She asked her friend who shrugged in response "I'm still not really sure. At first i thought it was all cool, but after meeting all you guys, I've started to have some second thoughts. I mean she still sends me a little money from time to time, but i guess it's not the same. Argh...i dunno. All of this is really thrashing my mind" He finished as he scratched his orange filled head in confusion.

"I think..." Shiki smiled "You should go talk to her again. She _is _your mom after all. You know, when I was little, my family meant the world to me. I didn't really have any friends so they were like all I had. When Eri came along, she became like family to me too. And now that I have all you guys with me, it feels like my family's just gotten a whole lot bigger. And that...makes me really happy"

Neku couldn't help but smile slightly at what she'd said. Not really having any friends in his life made him feel almost the same way about his new friends as well. In a sense, they were much alike. Being alone sometimes was good in Neku's opinion, but being with friends was something he'd begun to like more and more.

"I'll think about it" Neku concluded with a smile which made the raven haired teen reciprocate with a smile of her own.

Before Shiki could mutter another word, she suddenly felt a soft object gently tap her head. As a response, she looked up at the source to see a gentle rain of white snow fall down from the night sky "Neku, it's snowing!" She loudly spoke out with a joyful expression. Neku tilted his head up to see the blanket of white as well

"Hmph, took it long enough. I gotta say though, it looks much better now than it ever did. I dunno why, but it just does"

After one final glance at her blue eyed companion, Shiki slowly removed her hat and felt the calm white snowflakes land on her forehead. To them, this Christmas was deifinitely different than all the rest that they'd had and it was something they'd always treasure deep inside them.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And that ends the christmas chapter. Once again, I apologize if i made you wait too long. I've just been busy with some concept art and since school's finally started for me. Things are gonna get a bit busier from now on. However, I will still try my best to update whenever I can. Anyway, next up is the New Year's winter festival which I will try my best to make as entertaining as possible. Well, see you soon. Cheers

* * *

Shiki: Hey there folks! Today we'll be discussing about the many kinds of attacks that Neku can use when he enters 'noise' mode. To elaborate this issue, we've brought in the Seraph himself, Mr. Sanae Hanekoma!  
Hanekoma: Yo, how's it going?  
Shiki: So Mr. H, how many attacks does Neku actually use in that form?  
Hanekoma: Well, there's actually a total of 3 main moves that he uses. All of them which uses the combined energy of his 'soul' with the noise Neku inside him.  
Shiki: I see, could you elaborate more on these moves?  
Hanekoma: Sure thing.  
*Monitor pops up. A picture of Neku's noise form being shown*  
Hanekoma: Now the first attack focuses all of Neku's energy into his palms, enabling him to shoot that energy out like a gun. Perfect for long distance fights. The second transfers his energy unto the noise arms, making them more indestructible and much stronger as a weapon. The last attack is something he used during the fight with Saoru, the prince of noise. Now, this attack gathers all the energy from his six wings and overloads them in his body, making him as fast as the speed of light.  
Shiki: Interesting. So the wings are actually like a huge battery?  
Hanekoma: Exactly, which is why Saoru was weakened when me and Jean managed to cut off a few of his wings. Now that Neku can no longer use his pins, he has to rely on this new uncontrolled power. Well...I don't think Neku's completely lost his ability to use zodiac pins though. Something tells me it's still there...somewhere.  
Shiki: Oh, is this one of your famous hunches?  
Hanekoma: You know it.  
Shiki: Well, it seems we're out of time for today. Mr. H, thanks again for taking time off to be here  
Hanekoma: No prob. Just doing what I can to help  
Shiki: Alright, we should be going now. Although...i don't know why my broadcast partner isn't here. But oh well, see you again folks!


	17. to be continued in

To the fans and readers of TWBWY, the story will be continued in "The world begins with you: 2nd Rap" if you're still interested, please check it out. Thanks.


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